KCUR: Saint Luke's emergency medicine physician answers questions about face masks

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the CDC and White House are now recommending wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where social distancing may be difficult to maintain, like grocery shopping or going to the pharmacy.

KCUR talked to Dr. Marc Larsen, Saint Luke’s Incident Command Operations Chief and emergency physician, how face masks can reduce the spread of the virus and what you need to know about homemade masks.

"(Wearing masks) helps protect the spread if the patient may be infected and not aware that they may be infected and if they're coughing in public," Dr. Larsen said. "That's going to help prevent the droplet spread of the virus to whatever they may be coming into contact with."

"The other thing that these masks do, which is a secondary benefit, is that it just prevents you from touching your face so frequently."

Listen to the full interview below.