3 ms·

>The coffee filters people are wearing over their face will do close to nothing I'm not an expert, but I believe this is not quite accurate. As I understand i

>The coffee filters people are wearing over their face will do close to nothing I'm not an expert, but I believe this is not quite accurate. As I understand it, even a piece of cloth helps prevent the spread of the virus to others. The mechanism is that the virus exits your nose/mouth in the form of macroscopic droplets that later break down into microscopic droplets a few inches from your face. A bandanna will catch the big droplets before they split apart.

auser1443231 5y ago
It's accurate. A single layer mask made of quilters cotton has been shown to have a filter efficiency of ~9 without gaps[0]. Gaps in all unfitted masks (the type of masks worn by 99% of the citizenry) are thought to reduce efficiency by over 60%, so you're looking at ~9 *.6 = ~5% filter efficiency. That's worthless. A surgical mask is a little better but not much. There's a reason the FDA, which regulates masks, still maintains that surgical masks are not meant to prevent the spread of aerosols[1], which the CDC has confirmed to be a primary mode of transmission. That's also why, if anyone remembers, you'd see "DOES NOT PREVENT THE SPREAD OF COVID-19" in big bold letters whenever you tried to buy masks on Amazon. Honestly, anecdotal evidence should be enough. Why do people think that states without strict mask mandates have nearly identical infection rates as those with strict mandates? Mask mandates don't work. They just don't, and people need to stop playing identity politics with that fact. [0]: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.0c03252 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.0c03252 [1]: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/personal-protective-equipment-infection-control/n95-respirators-surgical-masks-and-face-masks https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/personal-protective-equi...

3 ms·

>The coffee filters people are wearing over their face will do close to nothing I'm not an expert, but I believe this is not quite accurate. As I understand i

by omginternets 5y ago

auser1443231 5y ago
It's accurate. A single layer mask made of quilters cotton has been shown to have a filter efficiency of ~9 without gaps[0]. Gaps in all unfitted masks (the type of masks worn by 99% of the citizenry) are thought to reduce efficiency by over 60%, so you're looking at ~9 *.6 = ~5% filter efficiency. That's worthless. A surgical mask is a little better but not much. There's a reason the FDA, which regulates masks, still maintains that surgical masks are not meant to prevent the spread of aerosols[1], which the CDC has confirmed to be a primary mode of transmission. That's also why, if anyone remembers, you'd see "DOES NOT PREVENT THE SPREAD OF COVID-19" in big bold letters whenever you tried to buy masks on Amazon. Honestly, anecdotal evidence should be enough. Why do people think that states without strict mask mandates have nearly identical infection rates as those with strict mandates? Mask mandates don't work. They just don't, and people need to stop playing identity politics with that fact. [0]: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.0c03252 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.0c03252 [1]: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/personal-protective-equipment-infection-control/n95-respirators-surgical-masks-and-face-masks https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/personal-protective-equi...