As COVID-19 vaccines go out to facilities across the country, health officials say it’s still important to follow health guidelines, including mask wearing.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina are studying various masks and their protection against COVID-19.
“It’s really been a tremendous opportunity,” UNC Medical Center Director of Infection Prevention Dr. Emily Sickbert-Bennett said.
“We wanted to have a way to verify that they were as effective as we believed they were,” she said.
Scientists ranked different mask types with filtration efficacy, which measures how well the mask material filters and fits on your face.
The most effective, at 98%, is the N95 mask. Other types, like a cotton bandana, ranked 49 to 50%, depending how it’s folded. A single-layer woven polyester gaiter/neck cover ranked around 37%.
Controlled studies in a lab have zero relevance to the real world where people touch their face, take their masks off and on, place them on every surface imaginable, re-use them 100 times, never wash them, etc etc. These scam “studies” are manipulated so that the fake “experts” have ammunition to continue their false illusion of control and power. The real world data comparing places with mask mandates to those without show that masks do nothing and possibly actually make things worse.