Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
But many of the ones who do, wear them UNDER their noses instead of ON their noses
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The predominant route of infection is through mucus producing goblet cells and a close second is ciliated cells in the human nasal epithelium. I.E. You get the infection through your nose. Yes, it can infect down further, but it seems to come mostly from the nose.
You infect OTHERS with viral shedding which comes out predominately from the mouth although a good sneeze comes out both. Standard breathing though? Mouth.
So these numbskulls with poor mask discipline are to some degree protecting you, but at no level are they protecting themselves.
They'd better protect themselves with something just over their nose, but that'd look even sillier than the chin strap.
For what it's worth, a standard surgical mask helps lower your exposure but you will still get exposed. This is called inoculum. Lowered inoculum leads to a better disease course. In fact, probably leads to asymptomatic disease.
If you wear a mask in your car, alone, which I have seen plenty of times, I'm curious as to how you think this protects anything. There is a time and place for masks and that's close proximity indoors. Outdoors, except super high density, (Think Time Square on 12/31), it isn't doing much either. Mother nature is diluting the viral load very rapidly.