A significant call to action has been made by a consortium of global health experts, including scientists and clinicians, urging the World Health Organization (WHO) to revise its guidelines on personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers. The core of their argument is that standard surgical face masks are 'inadequate' for providing protection against airborne pathogens, such as SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing COVID-19) and various flu-like illnesses. Instead, these experts advocate for the universal adoption of respirator-level masks, such as FFP2/3 in the UK/EU or N95 in the US, as the default standard in all healthcare settings. The experts, who conveyed their recommendations in an open letter to WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, contend that surgical masks were primarily designed to prevent healthcare workers from contaminating patients during procedures, not to protect the wearer from inhaling airborne infectious particles. They highlight that while surgical masks may block approximately 40% of Covid-sized particles, respirators can block 80% to 98% due to their superior filtration capabilities and tight facial fit, which is crucial for preventing leakage around the mask. This push for updated guidelines is supported by a growing body of evidence that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, which underscored the airborne transmission routes of the virus. The experts emphasize that switching to respirators would lead to a reduction in infections among both patients and healthcare professionals, thereby mitigating sickness, absenteeism, and burnout within the health workforce. The Guardian article, published on January 9, 2026, accurately reflects these urgent calls from the scientific community, further corroborated by reports in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and an open letter from the World Health Network. While the WHO's most recent guidance (October 2023) acknowledges respirators for healthcare workers in certain high-risk situations, the experts are pushing for this to become the universal standard.