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Your cloth mask doesn't protect you from others. It protects others from you.

astrange 6y ago
It does also protect you from others. The "it protects others from you" was propaganda to get around public health officials lying that masks didn't protect you unless you were a doctor in which case it worked for some reason. It doesn't perfectly protect you, but anything helps. A KN95/N95 is more effective and covering the eyes is better yet.
- Spivak 6y ago
  Yeah the idea that masks somehow are one-way is baffling to me. You’re somehow preventing particles from leaving your mouth while simultaneously breathing in those same particles from the outside. If that were true you might consider flipping the mask inside out.
  - amanaplanacanal 6y ago
    I think of it this way: if we are both wearing masks, your mask is going to block way more of your particles than my mask is, and vice versa.
    - bbarnett 6y ago
      The purpose of cloth/lower quality masks, is to reduce, not eliminate spread. When breathing in, air is drawn around the edges. Thus, if the virus is airborne around you, you'll breath it in. If you have the virus, and are exhaling, the goal is to stop large droplets of moisture, which carry further, from exiting the mask. They are larger, hence, they get blocked and absorbed by the mask. Further, when breathing out, air is slowed, and also again passes around the edge of the mask. This reduces the spread, and is also why '6 feet' is recommended as a distance to keep from people. Again, this isn't about protecting you, but protecting others if you're infected, spreading, and per-symptomatic. FYI, in most non-US countries ... this isn't a debate. It's just accepted. For example in Canada, politicians of all stripes, left/right/whatever, agree on such basic concepts. We also didn't have weird things with public servants lying about basic mask protocols. I'll put this another way. If you're spreading, and wear no mask? Being a few feet from someone, and talking, isn't going to just get the virus in their mouth. Inhaled. It gets it in their eyes, on their face, their clothes, the list goes on and on. Masks are about reducing that kind of spread! Do they help you? A little bit, sure. But thaw's not the point. The point is to protect others! The cynic in me thinks "What an American attitude. It's all about me, screw protecting others!"
LegitShady 6y ago
Explain the one way valve mechanism of a piece of cloth.
- kjeetgill 6y ago
  Not to take a horse in this mask-or-no race here, but the "One Way" thing is about air velocity and distance. The asymmetry comes from the shorter distance of the mask from the source of exhalation, faster/wetter air, when you breath out vs your intake which is ambient air pressures and speeds.
  - LegitShady 6y ago
    Your air is pumped in an out by your lungs, not ambient pressure. You determine the velocity of the air with your breath - breath in quickly or breath out quickly - that has nothing to do with the mask. Wetter air leaves your lungs, but air quickly goes to ambient and then takes on ambient air humidity anyways, so not sure how relevant to the people around you. And again, ambient air pressure has nothing to do with it. you determine the pressure with your lungs. If you breath in as quickly as you breath out, you will have similar air speeds and pressures.

It does also protect you from others. The "it protects others from you" was propaganda to get around public health officials lying that masks didn't protect you unless you were a doctor in which case it worked for some reason. It doesn't perfectly protect you, but anything helps. A KN95/N95 is more effective and covering the eyes is better yet.

Spivak 6y ago
Yeah the idea that masks somehow are one-way is baffling to me. You’re somehow preventing particles from leaving your mouth while simultaneously breathing in those same particles from the outside. If that were true you might consider flipping the mask inside out.
- amanaplanacanal 6y ago
  I think of it this way: if we are both wearing masks, your mask is going to block way more of your particles than my mask is, and vice versa.
  - bbarnett 6y ago
    The purpose of cloth/lower quality masks, is to reduce, not eliminate spread. When breathing in, air is drawn around the edges. Thus, if the virus is airborne around you, you'll breath it in. If you have the virus, and are exhaling, the goal is to stop large droplets of moisture, which carry further, from exiting the mask. They are larger, hence, they get blocked and absorbed by the mask. Further, when breathing out, air is slowed, and also again passes around the edge of the mask. This reduces the spread, and is also why '6 feet' is recommended as a distance to keep from people. Again, this isn't about protecting you, but protecting others if you're infected, spreading, and per-symptomatic. FYI, in most non-US countries ... this isn't a debate. It's just accepted. For example in Canada, politicians of all stripes, left/right/whatever, agree on such basic concepts. We also didn't have weird things with public servants lying about basic mask protocols. I'll put this another way. If you're spreading, and wear no mask? Being a few feet from someone, and talking, isn't going to just get the virus in their mouth. Inhaled. It gets it in their eyes, on their face, their clothes, the list goes on and on. Masks are about reducing that kind of spread! Do they help you? A little bit, sure. But thaw's not the point. The point is to protect others! The cynic in me thinks "What an American attitude. It's all about me, screw protecting others!"

LegitShady 6y ago

Explain the one way valve mechanism of a piece of cloth.

kjeetgill 6y ago
Not to take a horse in this mask-or-no race here, but the "One Way" thing is about air velocity and distance. The asymmetry comes from the shorter distance of the mask from the source of exhalation, faster/wetter air, when you breath out vs your intake which is ambient air pressures and speeds.
- LegitShady 6y ago
  Your air is pumped in an out by your lungs, not ambient pressure. You determine the velocity of the air with your breath - breath in quickly or breath out quickly - that has nothing to do with the mask. Wetter air leaves your lungs, but air quickly goes to ambient and then takes on ambient air humidity anyways, so not sure how relevant to the people around you. And again, ambient air pressure has nothing to do with it. you determine the pressure with your lungs. If you breath in as quickly as you breath out, you will have similar air speeds and pressures.