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Too porous to contain the virus or vice versa suspected of causing suffocation to the user. These theories often serve as arguments in protests against masks against pandemic measures, especially in Europe, where there is so much false information that it is being discredited in recent months by numerous scientists around the world. What the scientists answer
Lack of oxygen and excessive carbon dioxide: FALSE
The misconception that there is a risk of “hypoxia” when there is a dangerous lack of oxygen caused by masks is one of the most common. Some have even posted on social media claiming that the masks can even kill.
However, the mask does not cause oxygen deficiency, many doctors explained to the French Agency.
“The mask is not a closed circuit, it lets oxygen through,” said Professor Yves Copiete, an epidemiologist and professor of public health at the Free University of Brussels (ULB).
On the contrary, there may be “a feeling of discomfort, which gives the impression of suffocation, but this is psychological.” In the case of healthy people, the mask does not prevent anyone from carrying out their daily activities normally ”, she adds.
The equally misconception that with the mask we run the risk of inhaling the carbon dioxide that we exhale ourselves is also very popular. However, the mask does not seal tightly and allows air to circulate.
“A mask is not a closed circuit.” Almost all the exhaled air escapes from the mask, so you do not breathe your own CO2, “explains Seine Sambera, director of the lung disease program at Toronto Public Hospital (Canada).
“Nests” for bacteria, fungi, mold: INCORRECT
“Serious fungal infections (associated with fungi) are rare,” explains François Drome, head of the Molecular Fungi Unit and the National Reference Center for Invasive Fungi at the Pasteur Institute. “Under recommended conditions of use, there is no way for fungi to grow inside a mask,” he says.
“For a mask to mold it must be left damp, for example, in a room full of mold or manure for weeks,” he adds, reminding us that we have to change a mask every 4 hours.
As “humans have normal bacteria in their mouths and nostrils,” “when we speak, we spew drops of saliva.” There may be fungi or bacteria in the mask, “said Daniel Paua, professor of public health at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
But “most of these factors do not cause disease, because they are bacteria that we have in the mouth,” he adds.
They let the virus pass: INCORRECT
The theory that masks let the virus pass is also very popular and it is often said that the gaps in the masks are larger than the virus.
For one thing, “the size of the viral particle doesn’t matter. “What counts is the size of the droplets that contain the virus,” which are largely filtered by the mask, explains Dr. Julian Limbovic, professor of microbial immunology at A&M University, Texas.
On the other hand, the surgical mask does not act as a strainer, but as a filter according to other natural principles (inertia and electrostatic attraction …) to prevent so many droplets, even small ones, from passing through, according to Jean-Michel Courty, professor of physics at the Sorbonne and researcher at the Kastler Brossel laboratory.
According to the specifications of the Ministry of Health, the masks sold to the general public must filter at least 70% of the particles, of all sizes.
And “masks don’t have to be 100% effective to play a major role in slowing the epidemic,” says virologist Benjamin Neumann of A&M University in Texas.
The WHO considers that the use of a mask is an effective measure to reduce the spread of the virus, in addition to physical distancing and hand washing. It is even more effective if a population uses masks en masse, because that way those who use them protect each other.
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
