CDC backtracks! Agency drops advice for travelers to wear face masks to protect themselves against monkeypox less than 24 hours after story was circulated by the media
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has removed advice to wear masks
- Move is less than 24 hours after publications began to report the advice
- Monkeypox is typically transmitted through physical contact with skin lesions
- But in some cases it could also be spread by breathing in infected droplets
The CDC has dropped its advice for travelers to wear face masks to protect themselves against monkeypox just 24 hours after it was reported by the media.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deleted this bullet point from their alert on the tropical disease before 3am last night, screen captures show.
It was added to the section a week ago, after the threat level was raised to ‘practice enhanced precautions’ due to the global outbreak.
DailyMail.com has contacted the CDC for an explanation on the decision to take down the guidance.
Monkeypox can only be spread by people showing symptoms of the virus, and typically transmits through physical contact with infectious skin lesions.
But in some cases it may also be spread through breathing in droplets from infected people should they also have lesions in their throat.
America has detected 31 cases across 12 states and Washington D.C. so far, with most having lesions opening in the genital area as their first symptom.
Screen grabs of their website taken at 3am on June 7 (labeled top right) show that the advice to wear a face mask has been removed
But in a grab from just the day before the advice to wear a face mask is still clearly visible on the website
Screen captures from the WayBack Machine — which snaps billions of websites every day — showed the back pedal.
On June 6 the CDC alert page on monkeypox told travelers: ‘Wear a mask. Wearing a mask can help protect you from many diseases, including monkeypox.’
But the following day this sentence had been removed from the webpage. There were no other changes.
The archives show the advice to wear a mask was first quietly added to the page on June 1 — about a week ago.
The CDC website was down this morning, but when it came back online later today it also showed that the bullet point had been removed.
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