This is something I’ve heard a lot, and assuming it’s true, what’s the science behind it? Surely holes in masks are the same size no matter whether the germs are heading in or out, but I’m guessing it’s not about the holes and I’m missing something.
Obligatory disclaimer: I’m not an anti-masker, I’m still wearing it in shops for example. This is just me wanting to understand.
In: Biology
The mask stops tiny spit and cough particles from going out of your face. Not entirely, but it helps reduce it by a lot. you are more likely to catch germs through touching stuff with your hands. Unless you rub your face on things in public..
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The flat masks that the majority of people wear are designed to simply stop us from projecting all of our germs on everyone else. Instead of blowing out a large plume of respiratory particles we just have small cloud around our faces. Air is still able to flow around our masks and thus we can still breathe in what is in the air around us. A respirator or n-95 type dust mask needs to be fitted, and when worn correctly will filter particles from the air. This will effectively reduce infection rates.
Not all masks are the same. The n95, respirators, and similar high-quality masks are all capable of helping prevent germs from being inhaled or exhaled, whereas the basic cloth masks pretty much only stop the exhalation, because they aren’t as closely fitted to the face. So you don’t blast a huge cloud of particles with breathing or coughs, but you can still inhale anything that is airborne with the cloth masks. N95s and respirators have to be fitted to your face, and seal more closely than the cloth.
When you breathe out your breath also contains a lot of water vapour, bacteria and viruses can “piggyback” on the water vapour and travel substantial distances, breathing out can trap the water and also trap any infections carried by the water. This form of water vapour breathed upon someone can be prevented from being breathed in directly from another person, but the mask doesn’t stop that water vapour from hitting the rest of your face, your hands or some other part of your body and later being transferred into your body which is why washing your hands regularly is a good idea.
The best analogy I found was imagine you have a penis and you’re pissing yourself.
If you don’t have pants on. Other people near you will get wet regardless of whether they have pants on of not
If you do have pants on only you will get wet
Germs/cold viruses usually spread through tiny water particles that humans breathe out all the time and a decent mask stops them
While we’re breathing out, our germs are in the water vapor of our breath. Imagine blowing a bubble. (With germs inside it lol) YOUR mask catches YOUR breath on the way out because of this vapor. Ever notice how after wearing your mask for a bit, it’s moist/ humid inside?
But if you’re not wearing a mask and you breathe out all these germs, after floating around in the air awhile, then yeah, the water vapor kinda wears out until it’s just the germs, and then they can fit through unfiltered masks. But obviously as everyone else said, the greater risk is touching stuff the germs have managed to spread to.
I think minutephysics on YouTube gave the best explanation in their video [*Why Masks Work Better Than You Think*](https://youtu.be/Y47t9qLc9I4)
Okay, so many people in here are saying that you primarily catch Covid from surfaces.
This is very much **not true**
We don’t. It’s actually extremely rare.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00251-4
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7333993/
The more important reason here is the aerosol concentration in the air. When there’s a lot of particles that carry Covid in the air, some of those particles will simply find a way to squeeze by your mask, be it through a crack or some of the fibers of a non-FFP2 mask.
This is obviously more likely to happen at higher concentration.
This is the biggest thing: The amount of Covid is in the air is the most important factor.
By wearing masks, **most** of the particles you exhale will be trapped in your mask. This reduces the concentration in the air around you and makes it safer for every other person in the room.
Guys, I say this very often on here, but please validate what you are saying before saying it. There’s large amounts of misinformation in here.
Let’s imagine that you are not wearing pants, you are drunk, and you just randomly piss. You might randomly piss on someone else. And no one else is wearing pants either so when they piss, they piss on you. Now imagine that you put on pants. And now when you piss the piss is mostly stopped by your pants and very little of it will get on anyone else. Other people would have to touch your pants to get your piss on them. But other people can still piss on your pants if they are not wearing pants. You still get their piss on your pants and it will soak through and your legs get wet from piss. Now imagine that everyone is wearing pants. Everyone pisses on their own pants and no one gets pissed on.
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