Using thin, stretchy neck gaiters as a face mask may be ineffective in stopping the spread of the coronavirus, and could spread the virus itself rather than wearing a cover, according to a new study. Duke University researchers found that the neck brace they tested was “worse than nothing.”
“The neck clipper we tested did essentially nothing, and worse than nothing, because it turned out to make big drops into small drops,” Isaac Henrion, the study’s co-author, told CBS News. Henrion is also the coordinator of Cover Durham, a community project to distribute tens of thousands of masks to vulnerable people.
The experiment involved only a small number of speakers and face coverings, and the researchers stress that more tests are needed – some gaiters may work better than others, depending on how they are made.
The neck gear is a round piece of fabric that sits around a person’s neck and can be pulled up to cover their mouth and nose. The problem with the easy cover-up is probably not with its design, but with the fabric from which it is typically made.
According to Henrion, the study tests a neck gauze made of a thin, stretchy polyester, which is a commonly sold style. Instead of stopping droplets that may contain the virus from escaping into the air, it turned out that the substance converts large droplets into smaller ones, known as aerosols.
Niklas Halle’n / Getty
Aerosols are microscopic droplets that are produced when people cough, sneeze or talk, but they do not fall to the ground in the same way larger, visible droplets do. Henrion described a path of an aerosol like that of a paper airplane flying through the air and hitting currents that are invisible to the naked eye.
“They are really small, they are really invisible, they are floating, they do not fall to the ground, gravity does not strike them,” Kimberly Prather, distinguished chair in atmospheric chemistry at UC San Diego and an expert on aerosols, told Chief medical correspondent of CBS News Dr. Jonathan LaPook in June.
“And so if (aerosols are released) by someone who is infected, did not know it, and is talking in a room, then they can just build up in a room in time and whoever is in that room can catch up with you. and become infected, “according to Prather.
The danger of making aerosol drops is that it is harder to protect ourselves from aerosols than from larger drops.
“If you inhale small aerosols, they go deep into your lungs and can pass your immune system … that’s why you have no symptoms [at first], “Pretty explained.” The virus just takes off and your body is under attack, and you do not know it for five days, until it grows in your upper respiratory tract, then it triggers your immune system, and then you have symptoms. “
“Aerosols are increasingly being considered as an important source of transmission, especially in unventilated and crowded spaces where a strong concentration can build up over time,” according to Henrion. The extent to which aerosols carry the coronavirus is still being investigated, but evidence suggests that they play a role.
Duke’s study focused on droplet production during conversations, as opposed to coughing or sneezing, because research has shown that more than half of people infected with COVID-19 have no symptoms, and that they generally do not cough or night, according to Henrion.
“Talking really is the way asymptomatic transmission happens,” he said.
Dr Neeta Ogden told CBSN on Wednesday that a number of coronavirus outbreaks, including those among passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, in the homeless population of Boston and the workers at a Tyson Poultry Factory, occurred when “there was a high level of infection and a large percentage of people who were asymptomatic.”
Global coronavirus infections have doubled in just six weeks and climbed past 20 million, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than half of those positive cases come from just three countries: the United States, Brazil and India. Since the first cases were discovered in the US in January, more than 5 million Americans have been diagnosed and more than 165,000 have died.
Henrion notes that countries where a large percentage of the population wears masks were able to stop the transmission of the community.
“The evidence now from many fields is overwhelming that masks work,” he said.
While the study did not focus on creating a definitive ranking of masks, Henrion said that N95 and standard surgical masks released the least number of drops. N95s delivered the best results, and surgical masks came in second place, stopping 90-95% of drops. Simple two-layer cotton masks were effective at stopping 80% of the drops from coming out as participants spoke.
As for neck gaits, Henrion emphasized that the study was preliminary, and did not definitively decide whether the substance as a construction of a gaiter was responsible for producing smaller droplets. A neck gear with two layers of cotton could be more effective.
Without easy access to PPE, many people have become accustomed to making their own masks. The study showed that homemade versions can be effective, but people need to think about their mask construction and fit.
“Further research is needed to investigate the performance of bandanas and neck gaiters, because our study is only a proof of concept for the experimental method,” said Henrion.
Martin Fischer, an associate research professor in Duke’s chemistry department who took part in the study, told WRAL-TV that it was not intended to assess various face coverings, adding that “Not all … neck guests are bad “There are enough good ones out there. It depends so much on the material, on how many layers you wear.”
.
