Question: I saw that Lufthansa now has a requirement of only certain types of face masks on their flights, including no cloth masks. Is this to address concerns that you’ve highlighted in 1/26 Q&A? I couldn’t find a good explanation on their website.

Answer: Yes! Masks are some of the best tools we have to prevent viral spread.  With new, more contagious variants circulating, we want the masks people wear to be highly effective, which means double masking (as discussed the other day) OR wearing medical grade, higher filtration masks like KN95s (see Q&A of 11/20).  When it comes to the Lufthansa question– Lufthansa is a German airline and it appears that they are following the new German regulations.  As NPR reported earlier this week, 

“In Germany, the federal and state governments introduced measures last week making medical masks — identified as surgical masks or KN95 or FFP2 masks — mandatory in stores and on public transit. It also issued a recommendation that medical masks be worn whenever there is close or prolonged contact with other people, particularly in enclosed spaces…. The government said that in light of the new coronavirus variants, medical masks “offer greater protection than normal cloth masks, which are not subject to any standards with regard to their effectiveness.”… “We must take the danger posed by this variant very, very seriously, and we must slow the spread of this variant as far as possible,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel.”

Austria and France have similar measures as further described in the NPR article.  Note: The U.S. CDC continues to recommend that the general public avoid using surgical masks or N95 masks since “surgical masks and respirators are critical supplies that should be reserved for healthcare workers and other medical first responders to prevent supply shortages.”  This guidance does not apply to KN95 masks or non-medical disposable masks.