Editor`s Note:
When this story was originally published, health officials in the United States were asking people to save masks for front-line healthcare workers amid a shortage in personal protective equipment. With new evidence that showed masks could significantly reduce transmission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in early April recommended that everyone wear simple cloth face coverings while in public to help control the spread. On July 14, CDC director Robert Redfield wrote in a medical journal that the United States could get the pandemic “under control” in a matter of weeks if everyone wore masks.
