Face masks effectiveness: What science is aware of now

When the COVID-19 pandemic took off in 2020, so too did questions over the effectiveness of carrying a face masks to stop the unfold of the virus. Now, 4 years later, what does the science say?  

In an interview for 60 Minutes, CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook posed that query to Linsey Marr, a Virginia Tech college professor specializing in aerosol science.

“They are very useful in decreasing the possibilities that the individual will get COVID as a result of it is decreasing the quantity of virus that you’d inhale from the air round you,” Marr stated about masks.  

No masks is 100% efficient. An N95, for instance, is called as such as a result of it’s at the least 95% environment friendly at blocking airborne particles when used correctly. But even when a masks has an 80% effectivity, Marr stated, it nonetheless provides significant safety. 

“That significantly reduces the prospect that I’m going to turn into contaminated,” Marr stated. 

Marr stated analysis exhibits that high-quality masks can block particles which might be the identical measurement as these carrying the coronavirus. Masks work, she defined, as a filter, not as a sieve. Virus particles should weave across the layers of fibers, and as they achieve this, they could crash into these fibers and turn into trapped. 

Marr likened it to operating by a forest of bushes. Walk slowly, and the encompassing is straightforward to navigate. But being compelled by a forest at a excessive velocity will increase the chance of operating right into a tree. 

“Masks, even fabric masks, do one thing,” she stated. 

Can contaminated face masks trigger an infection?

Early within the pandemic, some steering from well being professionals instructed that carrying a masks would possibly truly result in an infection: An individual would possibly encounter a contaminated masks after which contact their eyes, nostril, or mouth. But analysis within the ensuing years has proven that worry to be misplaced. 

“There wasn’t any proof actually that that occurs,” Marr stated. 

Marr stated her workforce aerosolized the coronavirus, pulled it by a masks, after which examined how a lot virus survived on the masks. The research reported some viral particle remained on some fabric masks, however no virus survived on the N95s or surgical masks.

Marr’s workforce additionally touched synthetic pores and skin to masks and checked out what number of virus particles transferred to the factitious pores and skin. No infectious virus transferred. 

“I hope the research sort of exhibits that it is one thing we need not fear about as a lot as we have been instructed,” Marr stated.

The movies above have been initially revealed on October 29, 2023 and edited by Sarah Shafer Prediger.