Recent COVID-19 masking guidelines announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, continue to generate a public conversation.

"The decision about masking needs to be nuanced," says Dr. Gregory Poland, an infectious diseases expert and head of Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group. "Wearing a mask should be based on the risk of infection, the percentage of the population vaccinated, a person's own immune system, and then the role of vaccine variants with the durability of our immune response."

In this Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast, Dr. Poland discusses masking guidelines in further detail. Also, he offers an update on COVID-19 vaccine research for children, and he shares positive news about the decreasing numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Watch: Dr. Poland talks about mask wearing guidelines during COVID-19.

Read the full transcript.

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For the safety of its patients, staff and visitors, Mayo Clinic has strict masking policies in place. Anyone shown without a mask was either recorded prior to COVID-19 or recorded in a nonpatient care area where social distancing and other safety protocols were followed.

Information in this post was accurate at the time of its posting. Due to the fluid nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific understanding, along with guidelines and recommendations, may have changed since the original publication date. 

Research disclosures for Dr. Gregory Poland.

For more information and all your COVID-19 coverage, go to the Mayo Clinic News Network and mayoclinic.org.

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