Get used to seeing people wearing face masks in public places.
The World Health Organization’s coronavirus expert Dr. David Nabarro told BBC Radio 4’s "Today" program that people will continue to wear some type of facial protection outdoors even if it is just for reassurance.
“This virus isn’t going to go away and we don’t know whether the people who’ve had the virus stay immune afterwards and we don’t know when we’ll have a vaccine,” he said during Monday's interview.
Despite ongoing debates on whether face masks are effective at preventing the transmission of the disease, more authorities across the world are recommending or mandating people wear face coverings in public.
Dr. Nabarro likened the new reality of wearing face masks to previous times in history like when “it was discovered that dirty water bore cholera in 1850” or when “we all learned about HIV/AIDS and its relationship with sex.”
Learning led to changes in behavior, similar to measures being taken to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, he said.
“We changed, and we adapted and we learned how to live with these new realities,” he told BBC. “We have also got to live with the new reality of life with COVID-19.”
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.