Masks 'Most Important' Health Tool, CDC Director Says: BLOG

ACROSS AMERICA — Masks are "the most important, powerful public health tool we have" in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's top official said during a Senate hearing on Wednesday, the New York Times reports.

And Dr. Robert Redfield went one further, saying universal mask use could bring the coronavirus under control in just a few months.

“I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take a COVID vaccine,” Redfield said on Capitol Hill.

This as a plan to offer widespread free coronavirus vaccines has been outlined by federal health agencies.

Federal health agencies and the Defense Department sketched out complex plans in a report to Congress for a vaccination campaign to begin gradually in January or possibly later this year, eventually ramping up to reach any American who wants a shot, The Associated Press reports.

In a reversal in the sports world, the Big Ten Conference changed course on its decision last month to postpone football and other fall sports until at least the spring. Now, the major NCAA league says football season will begin Oct. 23. This leaves the Pac-12 conference as the only major collegiate league not playing football this fall due to the virus.

But a New York Times survey shows at least 88,000 cases and at least 60 deaths at more than 1,600 American colleges and universities since the pandemic began. Most of those deaths were reported in the spring and involved college employees, not students.

Off campus and in the cities and towns across America, plans for altered Halloween celebrations are already in the works more than a month ahead of the popular fall holiday. Some health experts, such as California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly, say that while some forms of celebrations are acceptable, trick-or-treating isn't advised.

"We're really urging people to be prepared for a different type of Halloween," Ghaly said. "Trick-or-treating and the type of mixing that comes with Halloween festivities is really not advised under COVID-19."

Health officials in Pima County, Arizona, also recommend canceling trick-or-treating.

In other developments, a bipartisan group of 50 lawmakers is proposing a compromise on a new coronavirus stimulus package. The group's goal is to show Democrats and White House negotiators there is enough common ground to forge a law, according to reports.

The proposed $1.5 trillion stimulus plan drafted by the House Problem Solvers Caucus includes measures that typically draw bipartisan support, such as the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses and direct stimulus payments to American taxpayers, the New York Times reported.

The plan also includes more-contentious measures such as new legal rights and protections for workers and their employers.

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As of Wednesday, 26 states and Puerto Rico remained above the positive testing rate recommended by the World Health Organization to safely reopen, down two from Monday. To safely reopen, the WHO recommends states remain at 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days.

More than 6.6 million people in the United States had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Wednesday evening, and at least 196,400 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Stay up to date on current coronavirus news via The New York Times or Washington Post.

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