Quote:
Originally Posted by blueash
The use of masks in a hospital setting is to protect the health care worker from inhaling infectious organisms from known sick persons.
The suggestion to use masks in the public is mostly to reduce the number of particles breathed out by mildly ill or asymptomatic spreaders. COVID is very unusual in the number of not obviously ill people it infects, and they seem to be contagious to others. The details on this are preliminary, very preliminary.
The size of the virus itself is not what determines if it is trapped in the mask. Rather it is the size of the particle containing the virus. With respiratory viruses, there is a particle of water/mucus/saliva/viruses which is much larger than the virus itself. As many of the particles are large enough to be caught in a mask, there may be a reduction in virus that becomes airborne. It certainly won't be zero.
Nobody knows how much this will help or if it will actually help at all. That is why there is controversy on the use of masks. The advise to use them is in the school of it can't hurt and might help.
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This video demonstrates how a home made mask does trap droplets. I've posted this same video in another thread but for those of you who have not seen it, this may explain how a cloth mask does block droplets from becoming airborne......
How a mask blocks droplets - YouTube