While it should never have been the case, facial masks have become a controversial topic, as everything pertains to humanity.
From people who refuse to wear masks in public places to those who misuse it by covering only their mouths, noses, or strangely their eyes, there has been a lot of misinformation floating around on the internet about them, and scientists and medical professionals have been testing their Better stop that on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Microbiologist Rich Davis was one of those who jumped on Twitter to demonstrate how putting on masks can significantly stop the spread of respiratory drops.
What does a mask do? It blocks the respiratory drops that come out of the mouth and throat.
Two simple demos:
First, he sneezed, sang, talked, and coughed into an agar culture plate with or without a mask. The bacteria colonies show where the drops landed. A mask blocks practically all of them. pic.twitter.com/ETUD9DFmgU
– Rich Davis, PhD, D (ABMM), MLS 🦠🔬🧫 (@richdavisphd) June 26, 2020
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Masked vs. Without mask
His demonstration was fairly direct: Dr. Davis sneezed, sang, spoke, and coughed while he had agar cultures close to his face, he had a standard surgical mask for some, and for some, no.
Once the cultures grew the bacteria that carried their respiratory droplets, the results were surprising. Wherever droplets and bacteria fall from your mouth, you will see the colony of bacteria that is in great numbers and feasting as if there is no tomorrow; however, in those where he wore a mask, they are nowhere to be seen.
How about keeping a distance?
As he did so, he also demonstrated how keeping a distance affects the spread of the drops. At distances of two feet, four feet, and six feet from the culture plates, Dr. Davis coughed loudly for 15 seconds with and without a mask.
The results, as expected, were quite explanatory.
How about keeping your distance?
Second demo: I put open bacteria culture plates 2, 4, and 6 feet away and coughed (loud) for ~ 15 seconds. I repeated this without a mask.
As seen by the number of bacterial colonies, the drops mostly landed within 6 feet, but one mask blocked almost all of them. pic.twitter.com/8wDdvIHHMa
– Rich Davis, PhD, D (ABMM), MLS 🦠🔬🧫 (@richdavisphd) June 26, 2020
This is a demonstration, not an experiment.
Dr. Davis stated that his demo is unlikely to show the difference between mask types, and since COVID-19 is a virus, not a bacteria, this was not an experiment, just a demo, BuzzFeed reported.
However, the CDC has long stated that COVID-19 is primarily spread through respiratory droplets. We can infer that a mask is very likely to block these drops that carry the viral load, while this demonstration does not directly prove it.
In light of this information, Dr. Davis urged the use of face masks and said, “We wash our hands after using the bathroom and wipe our noses with tissue. Facial masks / protectors should be just another act. normal hygiene. “
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