Does It Matter What Type Of Face Covering You Use? Yes! Here’s The Difference

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There’s broad consensus within the scientific community that one of the best ways to slow the community spread of coronavirus is for everyone to use a facemask. This is because by wearing a mask, the virus-laden respiratory droplets from an infected individual spread across a much smaller area.

Since it’s known that a person can be infected with COVID-19 without showing any symptoms (“asymptomatic”), or just be pre-symptomatic (“the time before you show symptoms”), the only way to keep the spread to a minimum is for everyone to use a mask. This is called taking universal precautions. It’s a way of saying that there’s no way to know who’s contagious and who’s not, so we’ll act like everyone is sick.

Inspiration for this post were comments left on to Sharon’s article about how airlines are tweaking facial recognition software to identify if someone is wearing a mask or not. She found this photo on Flickr to use as a cover picture.

Several commenters mentioned that this type of mask is not suitable for preventing the spread because you’ll still exhale droplets. The question then becomes, what kind of mask should you use?

I did some research and found a newly released study from Florida Atlantic University. They compared how far droplets traveled while using four of the most commonly used face coverings versus not using any type of protection.

While the study shows that some forms of face coverings are more effective than others, the big thing to remember is that any type of mask is better than not using one at all. However, if you’re one of the people who still aren’t wearing a mask in public, then I’d bet you didn’t even make it past the title of the article.

#stayhealthy #staysafe #washyourhands #wearamask

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary

Cover Photo by Edmond Dantès from Pexels