Don’t go reaching for the razor just yet because it turns out the infographic that’s circulating the internet telling people to shave their beards to protect themselves from coronavirus is some top-tier fake news.
The infographic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been shared countless times online with similar captions regarding the coronavirus.
Fox31 Denver took to Twitter, asserting that the infographic recommended men to shave their beards to protect themselves from the virus.
CDC recommends men shave their beards to protect against #coronavirus https://t.co/aKezq1Y1Jj pic.twitter.com/GJDiJDi3H9
— FOX31 Denver KDVR (@KDVR) February 26, 2020
In addition to being shared countless times on Twitter, CNN and NBC both wrote stories about the infographic. But it turns out this is all a bunch of fake news.
It turns out the infographic about respirators is actually from 2017, and is completely unrelated to the coronavirus (COVID-19) altogether. It’s not even about an illness.
The infographic was actually a part of the No-Shave November/Movember movement, and how your facial hair could impact the effectiveness of respirator masks.
Basically, the blog post on the CDC website explains the best sorts of facial hair for people who need to wear respirator masks to work.
The infographic suggests that if your hair crosses the respirator’s seal, it could prevent the mask from fully protecting you from small particles. However, this is more of a case for tradies who work with fine dust and particles, not people who are fearing coronavirus infection.
But regardless of the fact that the infographic is older than coronavirus itself, the internet is still convinced that they’ll have to shave their beloved beards to protect themselves from coronavirus.
Don’t believe everything you read on Twitter, folks. Fake news spreads like wildfire.
