Birx: Face masks not a substitute for handwashing, distancing to help prevent coronavirus spread

At a press briefing, Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said the use of face masks should not be a substitute for social distancing and washing hands to prevent contracting the coronavirus.

Video Transcript

DEBORAH BIRX: There is experiential data. When you look at communities that have, oftentimes, utilized masks in general for personal protection when they, particularly, are themselves sick and have used their mask in public. And we've looked at the rate of this COVID-19 in those populations, and then we're looking at the scientific evidence to bring those two pieces together.

Let me just say one thing, though. The most important thing is the social distancing and washing your hands. And we don't want people to get an artificial sense of protection because they're behind a mask because, if they're touching things, remember, your eyes are not in the masks. So if you're touching things and then touching your eyes, you're exposing yourself in the same way.

So we don't want people to feel like, oh, I'm wearing a mask. I'm protected, and I'm protecting others. You may be protecting others, but don't get a false sense of security that that mask is protecting you exclusively from getting infected because there are other ways that you can get infected because of the number of asymptomatic and mild cases that are out there.

And so this worries us. And that's why the debate is continuing about the mask because we don't want, when we're trying to send a signal that every single person in this country needs to stay six feet away from everybody, that needs to be washing their hands constantly and know where their hands are, to send a signal that we think a mask is equivalent to those pieces. So when the advisory comes out, it will be an additive piece, if it comes out, rather than saying this is a substitute for. And we want to make sure everybody understands it is not a substitute for the presidential guidelines that have already gone out and to be absolutely clear about that.

- A point of clarity about face-covering guidance. You said it's still a point of debate. You used the phrase, the guidance, if it comes out. Is the guidance coming out and when?

- Yes.

- And when, sir?

- In the days ahead, we're currently working through the task force, taking the consultation advice, CDC, our top health experts, and we're bringing forward guidance from the CDC over the next several days.

DEBORAH BIRX: Just remember, it's not a substitute for everything that we're asking people to do. And just to everybody out there across the country, when we say no gatherings of 10, we're looking at-- we wanted to be clear, if you have a family of 10, we don't want you to be split up.

But we don't expect people to be having dinner parties, cocktail parties. I mean, I know you've seen the slope in the United States versus the slope in Italy. And we have to change that slope. We have to change the logarithmic curve that we're on.

We see country after country having done that. What it means in the United States is not everyone is doing it. So only as strong as every community, every county, every state, every American following the guidelines to a T. And I can tell by the curve and as it is today that not every American is following it.

And so this is really a call to action. We see Spain. We see Italy. We see France. We see Germany. When we see others beginning to bend their curves, we can bend ours, but it means everybody has to take that same responsibility as an American.