MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A new theory introduced this week in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests wearing a mask could actually vaccinate people to COVID-19.
“It’s a theory is what it is,” said Baptist Memorial infectious disease specialist Dr. Stephen Threlkeld. “There’s very little of concrete data to be able to verify, you would be unable to do such a study to verify such a thing, you couldn’t get an ethical study lined up to really test it.”
Threlkeld says the idea that it’s better to be exposed to less virus is “certainly a reasonable idea to go by.”
While it’s an idea now, Threlkeld acknowledges often human nature is to protect ourselves, and this could lead to more masking.
“To the extent it does anything to protect ourselves it would just only tend to make people wear masks more, and that’s just going to be a good thing for us all regardless of the motivation behind it,” Threlkeld said.
