B.C.'s top doctor urged to start wearing, encouraging N95 masks

Vancouver -

At her weekly media briefing, B.C.’s provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said she wears a well-fitted, three-layer cloth mask in most places, and a surgical mask in medical settings.

But with the more transmissible Omicron variant surging, Henry’s being urged to switch to and encourage N95 masks.

Vancouver family physican Dr. Anna Wolak says N95 and N95-equivalent masks have two main benefits over cloth and surgical masks: better fit and improved filtration.

“The material that is used for the N95 and N95-equivalents is special, they are different," said Wolak. "They have an electrostatic charge that actually traps the particles that they are meant to filter. They have that extra super power, so to speak, that cloth masks just don’t have."

Canada’s chief medical health officer Dr. Theresa Tam wore an N95 mask for her booster appointment on Monday, and tweeted she has “upped her mask game” during Omicron.

With many infectious disease experts the world over now recommending N95 masks, Wolak would like to see Henry get on board.

“To hear from Dr. Henry that a cloth mask is adequate, it sends a mixed message. When you have mixed messages coming, it’s very confusing to the general public,” said Wolak.

Burnaby medical supply company Vitacore manufactures 6,000,000 N95 and N95 equivalent masks per month. While its primary focus is supplying health-care settings, its retail products have become a hot commodity.

“So obviously we’ve seen a spike in demand there,” said Vitacore president MIkhail Moore. “On our retail side our customer facing side, we have seen about 30 times increase just over the last one month.”

With public now clamouring for N95 masks, Moore is surprised Henry is still wearing a cloth or surgical one.

“I think right now B.C. is not really keeping up with the mountain of research that has happened over the last few years to say there is a lot benefits to these being in the community, and not much benefit for us using a cloth mask or a surgical mask in comparison to N95,” said Moore.

Wolak believes N95 masks should be available free to the public like vaccinations and COVID-19 tests. There’s no sign that could happen anytime soon, so she recommends those who can afford the $2-$3 per mask cost should switch now.

“If you look at the cloth masks, it’s just like facial dressing. They don’t protect against Omicron,” she said. But Wolak acknowledges the N95s can be hard to find online and in stores.

Vitacore says it’s trying to keep up. “Of course they are flying off the shelves very very quickly,” said Moore. “It’s just about scaling up to meet that demand.”