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For months it has been clear that wearing a mask reduces the transmission of Covid-19, as it prevents respiratory droplets from spreading and infecting others. Now, the Centers for Disease Control has highlighted another benefit of mask use that many expected or suspected to be the case: Masks can also protect the wearer from other people’s drops, the CDC wrote in a scientific report published today. Tuesday.
Wearing a mask is “a two-way street,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell in an interview Tuesday, citing new research on personal protection against wearing a mask.
Masks made with multiple layers of fabric have been shown to prevent 50-70% of a person’s respiratory droplets from spreading to others (which is one of the main ways the virus infects other people when a person contagious person sneezes, coughs, breathes or talks).
On the other hand, wearing a cloth mask can also reduce the number of infectious droplets that you are personally exposed to, because the cloth barrier filters out a degree of particles, according to the CDC. Some data has shown that a multilayer cloth mask made from a high thread cloth could filter almost 50% of respiratory droplets and aerosol particles. (N-95 respirators used by healthcare professionals can filter 95% of very small particles.)
Ideally, if everyone, infected or not, wears a mask, the effectiveness is even higher.
More research is needed to determine what materials and what type of fit would enhance the filtration benefits of a mask. (A Duke University study showed that surgical masks made from a plastic-derived material called polypropylene are the most effective at filtering out particles, followed by masks made from two layers of cotton and one layer of synthetic material.) Currently, the CDC recommends that people choose masks that are made from two layers of tightly woven, washable, breathable fabric.
Epidemiological studies have shown that when everyone wears a mask, the risk of transmission decreases. For example, a Beijing study of 124 households with at least one confirmed case of Covid-19 found that when the infected person and other household members wore masks, the spread was reduced by 79%.
The CDC says that a combination of “universal masking policies”, social distancing, ventilation and hand hygiene could prevent future blockages.
And a Goldman Sachs investigation in June found that a national mask mandate that increased the use of masks by 15% could prevent lockdowns that would take away nearly 5% of GDP, or $ 1 trillion.
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