Not all N95 masks are effective in defending against the coronavirus.
According to health experts, face masks with exhalation valves, instead of blocking particles that could spread COVID-19, actually allow the user’s germs to spread. Their ability to release large breath drops into the air has been a bit of a concern, including San Francisco health officer Dr. Tomás Aragón, who even signed an order in May warning of the potential dangers of these particular masks.
“Any mask that incorporates a one-way valve (usually a quarter-size raised plastic cylinder on the front or side of the mask) that is designed to facilitate easy exhalation allows drops to be released from the mask, placing other close at risk, “says the order.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guideline states that standard N95 respirators reduce user exposure by filtering around 95 percent of air particles, while those with exhalation valves allow ” the unfiltered exhaled air escapes to the sterile field. “
Dr. Matthew L. Springer, a cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, told the San Francisco Chronicle that masks with these values are “practically useless.”
N95 respirator in elderly hands close up
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“Since most of the value of these masks is not protecting the user but protecting others from a potentially contagious asymptomatic user, those one-way valves make the masks practically useless in protecting others,” he said. “So all of those potentially contagious people are throwing out big unrestricted breath drops, probably even in a concentrated stream that goes through the valves.”
If you have a mask with an exhalation valve, health experts say you can cover it with a piece of tape.
