![]() ![]() The COVID masking mindset can, to be fair, still be helpful to game out the risks at play. In more ways than one, the best masking practices in this moment will require snubbing some of our basest COVID-fighting instincts. Now, though, we’re having to flip the masking script: Right now, it’s outdoor air that we most want to guard our airways against. For the majority of Americans, face coverings are still most saliently a COVID thing-a protective covering meant to be worn when engaging in risky gatherings indoors. The masking advice might understandably spark some whiplash. And for those who “ have to go outdoors,” says Linsey Marr, an environmental engineer at Virginia Tech, “I’d strongly recommend wearing a mask.” It is, to put it lightly, an absolutely terrible time to go outside. Yesterday, New Haven, Connecticut, logged its worst air-quality reading on record in parts of New York and Pennsylvania, some towns have been shrouded in pollutants at levels the Environmental Protection Agency deems “hazardous”-the most severe designation on its list. ![]() The latest swaths of the United States to come into the crosshairs are the Midwest, Ohio Valley, Northeast, and Mid-Atlantic. Instead, masks are being urged as a precaution against the thick, choking plumes of smoke from Canada, where wildfires have been igniting for weeks. This time, the threat isn’t viral, or infectious at all. It was, in one sense, very familiar advice-and also very much not. Late last night, New Yorkers were served a public-health recommendation with a huge helping of déjà vu: “If you are an older adult or have heart or breathing problems and need to be outside,” city officials said in a statement, “wear a high-quality mask (e.g. ![]()
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