Vaccines may be critical to ending the pandemic, but masks remain one of our best individual weapons against the coronavirus.
As new, more infectious variants spread across the US, public-health experts have underscored the importance of making sure masks are multi-layered and sealed tightly.
The bottom line: "You really want to protect your eyes, nose, and mouth from other people's air space," Dr. Alice Sato, an epidemiologist at Children's Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, told Insider.
But not all masks are designed with the same level of protection in mind.
On Wednesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlined five helpful tricks to make masks more protective.
Most of the tips involve basic surgical masks, which studies have shown are highly effective at blocking respiratory droplets and smaller airborne particles called aerosols - when worn properly.