Interviewed Zhong Nanshan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and expert in respiratory diseases.

1. It's not time to remove the mask
Now is not the time to remove the mask. The situation at home and abroad is now very different. China has entered the second stage of the epidemic due to very decisive measures, while some other major countries are still in the first stage of the outbreak and are still climbing upward. This means that the probability of person-to-person transmission is very high, and the number of confirmed cases is increasing very quickly. Wearing a mask is still a very important means of self-protection, and it is too early to propose not to wear it. However, in areas where the epidemic is not serious, places with few people or empty places are not necessarily worn.

2. It is too early to talk about the turning point of the global epidemic
From a global perspective, the epicenter of the original epidemic was in Europe, especially Spain and Italy, and now includes Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. The biggest problem is the United States, which has been increasing at a rate of 10,000 or 20,000 cases per day in the most recent week. Therefore, it is still early to see the turning point.
At the inflection point, it depends on whether the government can intervene forcefully. There are many unpredictable factors in other countries, so it is much harder for me to predict the global inflection point than it is to predict China. As this situation continues to develop, I am afraid it will take another two weeks.