According to a new study, the use of a neck mask as cover for the face would possibly be useless to prevent the spread of coronavirus and may also even spread the virus rather than dressed in a blanket. Duke University researchers found that the neck mask they tested was “worse than nothing.”
“The neck protector we tested essentially did nothing, and worse than anything, because it turned giant droplets into small droplets,” studio co-author Isaac Henrion told CBS News. Henrion is also the coordinator of Cover Durham, a network assigned to distribute tens of thousands of masks to vulnerable people.
The neck mask is a piece of circular cloth that is placed around a person’s neck and can be pulled to cover their mouth and nose. The challenge with the practical canopy is probably not in its design, but in the fabric with which it is made.
According to Henrion, the researcher tested a thin elastic polyester neck cover, for which they are often manufactured. Instead of preventing drops that would possibly involve the virus from escaping into the air, the tissue appears to turn into giant droplets into smaller droplets, called aerosols.
Sprays are a type of droplet that occurs when other people cough, sneeze, or talk, but don’t fall to the ground in the same way as larger visual droplets. Henrion described the trail of an aerosol as that of a paper plane flying through the air and captured through currents invisible to the naked eye.
“They’re actually tiny, they’re actually invisible, they’re floating, they don’t fall to the ground, gravity doesn’t,” said Kimberly Prather, prominent president of atmospheric chemistry at UC San Diego and experts on aerosols, said CBS News medical correspondent Leader Dr. Jonathan LaPook in June.
“And so, when (the sprays) are released through an inflamed person, who doesn’t know and speaks in a room, they can just accumulate in a room over time and anyone in that room can inhale and inflate them,” Prather said. .
The danger of creating spray drops is that it is more complicated for you with aerosols than giant droplets.
“If you inhale tiny sprays, they penetrate deep into your lungs and can bypass your immune system… that’s why you don’t have any symptoms,” Prather explained. “The virus peels off and your body is attacked, and you don’t know it for five days until it develops in the upper airways, then activates your immune system and then has symptoms.”
Duke’s study focused on the production of droplets when speaking, rather than coughing or sneezing, as studies showed that more than one part of other people inflamed with COVID-19 have no symptoms and do not cough or sneeze, according to Henrion.
“Talking is how asymptomatic transmission occurs,” he said.
Dr. Neeta Ogden told CBSN Wednesday that many coronavirus outbreaks, coupled with diamond princess cruiser passengers, Boston’s homeless population and Tyson poultry plant staff, occurred when “there was a peak infection point and a giant asymptomatic percentage.” People. “
Global coronavirus infections have doubled in just six weeks and exceeded 20 million, according to Johns Hopkins University’s knowledge. More than some of these positive cases come from 3 countries: the United States, Brazil and India. Since the first cases were detected in the United States, more than five million Americans have been diagnosed and more than 165,000 have died.
Henrion noted that countries where a giant percentage of the population wears masks should avoid network transmission.
“Evidence of many spaces now overwhelmingly indicates that the mask works,” he said.
Although the study did not intend to create a definitive classification of the mask, Henrion said the N95 and the popular surgical mask released the least amount of drops. The N95 drove more productively and the surgical mask came in second, avoiding 90 to 95% of the drops. A simple two-layer cotton mask was effective in preventing 80% of the drops from coming out when participants spoke.
With regard to the neck protectors, Henrion noted that the examination was initial and did not conclusively determine whether the fabric or structure of a leg was guilty of the production of smaller droplets. A neck mask with two layers of cotton may be more effective.
Without a simple PPE, many other people dedicated themselves to making their own masks. The study showed that home versions can be effective, but other people want to be aware of the structure and have compatibility with their mask.
“More studies are needed to examine the functionality of scarves and neck protectors, as our examination is evidence of the concept of the experimental method,” the university said in a statement.