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Comment by T-hawk | Hacker News Reader

A mask doesn't "work" in the sense of preventing you from catching the virus, because airborne is not its transmission method.

A mask does work in the sense of reducing your transmission to others if you are infected (and may not know it), by keeping your moisture-laden exhalations confined.

A mask can reduce your risk by reminding you not to touch your face after having contacted potentially infectious surfaces.

And there are different types of masks. Simple cotton patches aren't what the medical establishment needs, they don't filter micron-size virus particles. There are surgical-grade masks that do, and that's what medical workers need.

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We really need to start distinguishing between masks and respirators.

Surgical masks are useless for protecting the wearer from infected people, however they help protect others from an infected wearer.

If used properly, a respirator will help protect the wearer from infected people, as it will block them from inhaling virus-containing droplets.

I don’t see how they’re completely useless for protecting the wearer. If someone infected sneezes in my face, would I not be better off with a physical barrier over a point of entry into my system?

Not completely, but it's pretty unlikely it helps. First of all, no one will probably sneeze (or actually cough, because that's the frequent symptom) in your face directly.

If it's not 'in your face', just pretty close, then a lot of the droplets will be too small for the simple surgical mask to filter out. Especially as it leaves a lot of gaps around your nose and mouth. Not to talk about your eyes, where you can get infected just as easily. (Yes, you could wear protective glasses too.)

But... if almost everyone wears these in public places, which actually just became compulsory in Czech that should give pretty good protection to everyone (by filtering the emission of the asymptomatic infected).

And if we think about this use case, then actually it makes no point telling people that it won't protect them because if they think it will they are more likely to wear it.

Droplets on the mask and you breathe them in right through it.

Surgical masks contain a wax barrier that prevents the healthcare worker from spreading their own germs.

If a surgical mask can stop germs from going out of the mouth, then I better hear a more rigorous reason why that same mask doesn't work in the opposite direction.

> If a surgical mask can stop germs from going out of the mouth, then I better hear a more rigorous reason why that same mask doesn't work in the opposite direction.

One word: leakage.

Watch this:

Healthcare - Mask vs. Respirator Video - 3M Worker Health and Safety

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR2uLfEVD2w

> Surgical masks are useless for protecting the wearer from infected people

They are not useless for protecting the wearer, and this anti-vaxer level dangerous misinformation needs to stop. It's like saying condoms are useless for protecting the wearer from HIV because they sometimes break.

The lie that masks don't work was spread because there weren't enough masks. Sad that people are still falling for it/spreading it.

Paper I saw on homemade masks compared to N95 masks. Said ones made out of tee shirt material were not as good but not useless. The authors also pointed out they also work by preventing the wearer from touching their mouth and nose.

Frankly I see no downside to people wearing homemade masks.

Edit: More friendly article that references the paper I'm talking about.

https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/best-materials-make-diy-...

"The scientists found that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was detectable in aerosols for up to three hours..."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200317150116.h...

That indicates airborne transmission is a vector.

> airborne is not its transmission method

If the virus can stay "alive" in the air for 3 hours [1], why wouldn't airborne be a transmission method?

[1]: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200318_23/

It my understanding that the difference between this and other airborne things is that the particles that get expelled from covid patients contains liquid droplets that are pretty heavy and so they fall out of the air quickly and onto surfaces, they dont float around and linger.

Smaller lighter particles can just float around in the air for hours and linger, then you just have to breath them in. With covid you'd have to touch a surface that droplets fell onto, and then touch your face or something.

Verify this info before counting on it for anything serious, I am a lay person with possible misunderstandings.

https://nyti.ms/2x2naQu

Masks work. Telling the public they didn't need them in order to conserve them for doctors and nurses was a mistake.

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