According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Americans must wear a mask to stop the spread of COVID-19.
The New York Times says if one mask works, it’s maybe twice as nice.
‘Soccer coaches do it. Presidential elections do that. Even scientifically skilled senators do this. “As coronavirus cases continue to increase worldwide, some of the country’s most famous people have begun doubling masks – a move that researchers say is increasingly backed by data,” the newspaper wrote.
The Times cites Linsey Marr, an expert on virus transmission at Virginia Tech, who said, “if you combine multiple layers, you start to achieve fairly high efficiencies” to prevent viruses from penetrating and even penetrating the nose or mouth.
Of course, there is a downside: “We run the risk of it becoming too difficult to breathe.”
According to the CDC, COVID-19 “spreads mainly from person to person through respiratory droplets. Breathing drops move into the air when you cough, sneeze, talk, scream or sing. These drops can then end up in the mouth or nose of people near you, or they may inhale these drops. ‘
And the federal agency now says that ‘a cloth mask also offers you protection. How well it protects you from inhaling the virus probably depends on the tissues you use and how your mask is made (eg the type of material, the number of coats, how well the mask fits). CDC is currently studying these factors ”and says more evaluation is needed.
The CDC nevertheless states that ‘studies show that cloth mask material can also reduce exposure to infectious droplets by means of filtration, including filtration of fine droplets and particles of less than 10 microns. The relative filtration efficiency of different masks differed across the different studies, mainly due to variation in experimental design and particle sizes analyzed. ”
While the Times says that the best masks remain N95s, which filter out 95% of particles and droplets, ‘a similar protection’ can be laid on two less specialized masks on top of each other. ‘
“Dr. Marr recommends wearing face-masking cloth masks over surgical masks, which are usually made with more filter-friendly materials, but looser fits. An alternative is to wear a cloth mask with a bag that can be filled with filter material, such as “The kind that occurs in vacuum bags. But wearing more than two masks, or putting on masks that are already very good for filtering, will result in rapidly decreasing yields and make it much more difficult to breathe normally,” writes the newspaper.
In October, President-elect Joe Biden was seen wearing two masks as he traveled to North Carolina for a campaign stop, a cloth on top of a paper medical mask.
“Biden, who was photographed in a white mask under a navy blue one, was added by Hunter’s teenage daughter, Finnegan, a few days after her father’s email made national headlines,” reports The Daily Mail. “Finnegan apparently also wore a white mask under a dark blue one that read: ‘Voice’.”
Related: Twice as safe: Biden wears TWO masks during campaign rally in North Carolina