Studies show that gaiters on the neck may be worse than not wearing a mask at all

According to a new study, using neck gaiters as a face cover is ineffective at stopping the spread of coronaviruses and may even spread the virus more than not wearing a cover at all. Researchers at Duke University have discovered that the neck gaiters they tested are “worse than nothing”.

“The neck gaiters we tested did nothing essentially, nothing bad, because they looked like they turned large droplets into smaller ones,” said Isaac Henrion, co-author of the study. Told CBS News. Henlion is another coordinator Cover durham, A community project that distributes tens of thousands of masks to vulnerable people.

A neck gaiter is a circular piece of fabric around a person’s neck that can be raised to cover the mouth and nose. The problem of convenient cover-ups is not in the design, but usually in the fabric it is made from.

According to Henlion, Investigation They tested a neck gaiter made of a thin, stretchy polyester that is commonly made. Instead of stopping the potentially virus-laden droplets from flying into the air, the fabric appeared to turn the large droplets into smaller droplets called aerosols.

Aerosols are a type of droplet that people produce when they cough, sneeze, or talk, but they do not fall to the ground like large, visible droplets. Henlion described the path of an aerosol in which a paper plane flies in the air and is entrained in a stream that is invisible to the naked eye.

“They’re really small, they’re really invisible, they’re buoyant, they don’t fall to the ground, and gravity doesn’t act on them.” The Kimberly Placer and Aerosol Specialist, the prestigious chairs of atmospheric chemistry at the University of California San Diego. House, Dr. Jonathan Rapuk, Chief Correspondent of CBS News In June.

“Therefore, if (aerosol) becomes infected, unaware of it, and released by someone speaking in the room, it will accumulate in the room over time, and anyone in that room may inhale them and become infected. There are.” According to Placer.

The danger of creating aerosol droplets is that it is harder to protect yourself from the aerosol than from large droplets.

“When you inhale small aerosols, they can go deep into your lungs and bypass your immune system…that’s why you have no symptoms. [at first]”Placer explained. “The virus has taken off, your body is under attack, and you don’t know it for 5 days until you grow in the upper respiratory tract, then it causes your immune system, and you have symptoms.”

“Aerosols are now considered to be a major source of infection in unventilated, congested spaces, where particularly strong concentrations can accumulate over time,” Henlion said. .. The possibility that aerosols may carry coronaviruses is still being studied to some extent, but evidence suggests that they play a role.

According to Henrion, Duke’s research focused on the formation of droplets during talking, not on coughing or sneezing. This is because more than half of those infected with COVID-19 show no symptoms and therefore do not cough or sneeze.

“Speaking is actually the way asymptomatic infections occur,” he said.

Dr. Nita Ogden told CBSN on Wednesday. Diamond princess cruise ship, Boston Homeless Population Worker with Tyson Poultry Factory, “There was a significant proportion of people who were asymptomatic and had high levels of infection.”

Global coronavirus infections doubled in just 6 weeks, Over 20 millionFrom the data from Johns Hopkins University.. More than half of these positive cases occur in only three countries: the United States, Brazil and India. Since the first case was detected in the United States, Over 5 million Americans Diagnosed and killed more than 165,000.

Henlion said countries in which a large portion of the population wore masks were able to stop infections in their communities.

“Now the evidence from many disciplines is overwhelmingly obscuring the work,” he said.

Research did not aim to create a clear ranking of masks, but Henlion said N95 and standard surgical masks emitted the least amount of droplets. N95 gave the best results, the surgical mask came in second place, blocking 90-95% of the drops. A simple two-layer cotton mask was effective at preventing 80% of the droplets from falling out while the participants were speaking.

Regarding gaiters in the neck, Henrion emphasized that this study is preliminary and does not conclusively determine whether the gaiter fabric or structure is involved in the formation of smaller droplets. Two layers of cotton neck gaiters are more effective.

Due to the lack of easy access to PPE, many people are now making their own masks. This study shows that the home-made version may be effective, but people should be aware of the structure and fit of the mask.

“Our research is just a proof of concept for methods, so more research is needed to investigate the performance of bandanas and neck gaiters,” said Henrion.