Creighton medical expert recommends double-masking

Maureen Tierney, MD, chair of the Department of Clinical Research and Public Health in the Creighton School of Medicine recommends people consider double masking due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A Creighton University Medical Expert recommends people double-mask to increase their protection against the Omicron variant.

Maureen Tierney, MD, chair of the Department of Clinical Research and Public Health in the Creighton School of Medicine recommends people consider double masking due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

According to Tierney, double-masking provides increased protection against COVID-19. Tierney says many health care providers utilize double masking as a prevention measure to keep staff and patients healthy.

“Wearing a tight-fitting cloth mask and medical procedure (surgical) mask together can help limit spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 by helping with source control or substantially reducing exhaled respiratory particles from infected wearers and reducing exposure of uninfected wearers,” said Tierney.

According to lab tests done by the CDC, double masks decreased exposure to potentially infectious aerosols by 95 percent.

Tierney recommends selecting masks with a nose bridge for the best protection, along with a multi-layer cloth mask of a cotton-poly blend.