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The empirical results of mandating masks is that virus spread is reduced substantially. But most masks people wear are not N95 type masks and shouldn't be as e
by entropicgravity 5y ago
The empirical results of mandating masks is that virus spread is reduced substantially. But most masks people wear are not N95 type masks and shouldn't be as effective as the empirical results indicate. One article I read suggests that the effectiveness of masks comes not primarily from the filtering out of the virus but from increasing the humidity in the respiratory tract which in turn affects the ability of the virus to transmit disease.
- thehappypm 5y agoDo you have any sources for that empirical result? I saw a big study result from Africa that came out last week, and it showed that surgical masks were helpful in reducing spread but the p-values were surprisingly weak except in the over-65 group. And cloth masks were very statistically weak in helping anyone.
- everybodyknows 5y ago>increasing the humidity in the respiratory tract which in turn affects the ability of the virus to transmit disease. Consistent with early studies on mask sterilization techniques, which found that adding moisture to heat accelerated decay of virus particles.