Dr_SLO
Well-known member
So what you're saying is that a homemade mask with some kind of tighter weave of paper or similar will noticeably reduce the amount of virus-carrying particles out into the aire.
But, just cloth, even when doubled up will have little impact on the volume and velocity of virus-carrying particles going out into the air around the people using them?
Who knows how effective home made masks are. There have been limited studies suggesting they are 5-fold more effective than not wearing a mask but a surgical mask was 3 times more effective in blocking transmission than a homemade mask. it's not clear what that translates to in a real world setting. It's still not clear how well surgical masks work at the population level. From my understanding that study has not been performed.
There's an editorial in the British Medical Journal, Covid-19: should the public wear face masks?, that discusses the whole subject. The article finishes with this statement...
Greenhalgh and colleagues argue that, given the gravity of the pandemic, indirect evidence of benefit combined with the low risk of harm should outweigh the absence of direct evidence supporting mask wearing by the general public.
...and, in true survey fashion, I somewhat disagree with this because of a potential for increased face touching, contamination and alike from ill fitting masks, and a lack of standardization. Time will tell if facemasks are useful but with the uptick in cases for Singapore and Japan might be weakening the argument.