Snug and Doubled-Up Masks Can Help Stop Covid Spread, CDC Finds

Snug and Doubled-Up Masks Can Help Stop Covid Spread, CDC Finds

People could possibly help to cut down on the spread of the coronavirus by wearing two face masks layered together and making sure that even a single mask fits snugly on their faces, according to research federal health officials released Wednesday.


The laboratory study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention involved experiments where artificial heads were exposed to particles that were meant to simulate aerosols from coughs and breath that can spread Covid-19.


A key finding is that—compared to not wearing a mask—either donning a face cover that is tightly fitting, or wearing one mask over another, can reduce a person's exposure to the potentially risky airborne particles by roughly 96% on average.


CDC looked at a method for making a mask fit tighter that involves knotting the ear loops and tucking in excess material next to the face.


In the experiments, an artificial head mimicking a person exhaling breath was fitted with a surgical mask that was unknotted. That covering reduced the particles that reached the other figure, 6 feet away, by about 40% compared to a scenario with no masks.


When both figures were fitted with the unknotted masks, that reduction improved to 84%.


The decreases in the the 96% range with the airborne particles reaching the figure exposed to the fake breath came when medical masks on both heads were cinched down with the knots and sealed with folds, or otherwise doubled-up with cloth coverings.


"Masks work and they work best when they have a good fit and are worn correctly," Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said during a press briefing on Wednesday.


She said that the new data from CDC underscores the importance of people wearing properly-fitting ma ..

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