SAN ANTONIO — If you've got Cedar Fever now is the time you start looking for any kind of relief. And if masks can help prevent spreading the coronavirus, what about Cedar Fever?
THE QUESTION
Can wearing a mask during cedar fever months help allergy sufferers?
THE SOURCES
- Dr. Fred Campbell, Associate Professor of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio
- Dr. Erica Gonzalez, the CEO of South Texas Allergy & Asthma Medical Professionals
THE ANSWER
Dr. Fred Campbell from UT Health San Antonio told us, "Fortunately the same kind of mask that used to protect high risk individuals from COVID-19, the 95 or N95 mask is extremely effective in reducing the amount of cedar pollen that's inhaled."
Dr. Erica Gonzalez from South Texas Asthma and Allergy Medical Professionals said, "One of the things that masks will do in addition to us wearing it for COVID so that we're not spreading our germs onto others. It helps us filter some of the air that we're breathing in. So less pollen going up our nose and in our mouth, less reaction that we're going to get from it."
So the answer is yes. It is true. Wearing a mask during cedar fever months can help allergy sufferers. Just like Dr. Campbell, Dr. Gonzalez said wearing an N95 mask would be best, or a surgical mask. But if you don't have one of those, a cloth mask will work too, just not quite as well.