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Can face masks fend off coronavirus? For LA's Chinese communities, it's a
cultural disconnect
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   Several staff members of a small community health clinic in LA’s
   historic Chinatown spoke on the phone with patients Tuesday while
   wearing face masks that muffled their voices.

   The masks are a recent phenomenon at the clinic, located inside the
   Chinatown Service Center, a nonprofit community assistance organization
   that serves mainly Chinese immigrants.

   Staffers showed up for work wearing the masks Monday, a day after
   public health officials confirmed the first two California cases of the
   new coronavirus, in Los Angeles and Orange counties, said Dr. Felix
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   said.

   A pilot's perspective on coronavirus: Should you wear a surgical mask?

   As China grapples with the growing coronavirus outbreak, Chinese people
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   adopted homeland.

   The use of face masks is common in China, to protect against both germs
   and pollution. But when Chinese immigrants wear them in the U.S., it
   often conflicts with guidance from officials, who warn that they offer
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   security. It can also draw suspicious gazes from passersby.

   “In the U.S., if you’ve got a mask, people will sort of look at you
   like you’re doing something unusual, whereas in Asia it’s fairly common
   to do this, and people don’t give it a second thought,” said Dr. Bryant
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   about coronavirus

CDC doesn't recommend masks for preventive purposes, but stores have run out

   Alhambra Unified School District in Los Angeles County, where a
   significant proportion of students are from Mandarin-speaking families,
   is getting a lot of pushback against school rules that ban face masks
   for students, said Toby Gilbert, a spokesperson for the district.

   “There is no evidence that the mask-wearing in a school setting does
   anything but create fear,” Gilbert said. “It keeps people from
   remembering that the primary defense is hand-washing.”
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   districts, notes that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
   Prevention and the LA County Department of Public Health do not
   recommend the use of masks for preventive purposes. It reiterates the
   view of the county health department that there is “no immediate threat
   to the general public, and no special precautions are required.”

   Nonetheless, local stores have run out of masks.

   Mike Mai, 29, a recent transplant from Boston, wore a mask Tuesday as
   he shopped with his maskless girlfriend at San Gabriel Square, an
   outdoor shopping center in the San Gabriel Valley, which has a high
   concentration of Chinese immigrants.

   Mai said he wore the mask for “personal protection,” asserting that
   local public health officials didn’t seem sufficiently concerned about
   the new virus despite the confirmed cases in California.
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   of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations in San Leandro, urged
   officials and the public to refrain from criticizing families who send
   their children to school with masks.

   “Instead of blaming the Chinese American community for spreading fear,
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   Cherry Tang, who leads young adult ministries at Sunrise Christian
   Community in Rosemead, a largely Asian city just east of Los Angeles,
   worries about a shortage of masks. Tang, 29, said that as soon as she
   can get more masks, she wants to put them, along with hand sanitizer,
   in the part of the church that is open to the public.

   “Maybe we should have some regulations, or remind people if they’ve
   just come from China within the last 14 days, they should put a mask
   on,” Tang said. “We shouldn’t treat them differently, but we should
   still be cautious about it.”