As people worry about current COVID-19 outbreaks around the world, a three-year-old graphic illustrating the effectiveness of wearing a mask with facial hair has begun to spread across social media and appear on at least one late-night comedy show.
In November 2017 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) posted a story about campaigns like No-Shave November and Movember, which are great, but if you need to wear a mask for your job, the agency warned that the mask’s effectiveness is compromised by facial hair.
The CDC said that facial hair will interfere with the tight respirator seal that is vital to the respiratory protection equipment.
A graphic that accompanied the post listed 36 versions of facial hair, from clean-shaved (great for masks) to various mustache and beard styles, and rated them good or bad for masks.
Styles like the soul patch, pencil and Zorro get a green checkmark for being good for masks and respirators, while full beard, French fork and Van Dyke styles, get a red “X” indicating they would interfere. Basically most mustache styles are OK for masks, while beards get in the way. Horseshoe and villain styles fall in-between.
The CDC does not recommend for anyone who is well to wear a mask to protect themselves from respiratory diseases, including COVID-19. But they do suggest masks for people who are showing symptoms of the disease.
COVID-19 is caused by a member of the coronavirus family that’s a close cousin to the SARS and MERS viruses that have caused outbreaks in the past.
The graphic was picked up by “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” that shared a skit featuring the fictional American Association of Evil Villains sharing a message about facial hair and masks.
And of course users on Twitter joked about the graphic.
