5 ms·
What if I have X masks and rotate their usage without any cleaning at all. Would this allow the virus to die naturally without the need to clean the mask?
by nominated1 7y ago
What if I have X masks and rotate their usage without any cleaning at all. Would this allow the virus to die naturally without the need to clean the mask?
- renewiltord 7y agoYes, this will work and is current healthcare professional practice in many places. It will take a few days, though, so people usually line up like 5-6 and then rotate through those. If you can heat the masks that's cool, too, but then you have to make sure you don't damage the elastic or seal. Waiting will work.
- cryoshon 7y agoaccording to the OP paper, that's an unproven strategy. i can't find anything else supporting it in the literature linked by that paper either. so the real answer is that we don't know. however, while it appears to be unproven, given what we know about how long the virus survives on different materials, i would say that it is probable that leaving a mask aside in a dry spot for a week or so is effective at ensuring there are no viable viral particles remaining on the mask. as long as we're using unproven decontamination methods, i'd say to also leave the external surface of the mask in direct sunshine for a few hours too. as the OP paper notes, sun bleaching / UVR does degrade the quality of the filtration by a small amount (around 1.5% if i recall) but it's also effective at destroying viral particles in a short period.