Why in America people suddenly wear two masks on top of each other

Let’s face it, it’s almost like you were wearing a face mask in a distracted mood while you already had one. But in America, wearing masks on top of each other is fashionable. Recommended by the CDC US Health ServiceEven since last week.

Therefore, not the least of them practiced the noble art of double wearing. Under the Blue Mouth Mask of First American Physician Anthony Fauci: Another Mouth Mask. Behind President Joe Biden’s ears: two sets of rubber bands. This bulge under the hood of Tom Cruise’s mouth: Is that still a mask, Or are you happy to see me?

This will have something to do with the fashion. The best medicated mouth and nose masks don’t look very nice. And who wants to go out on the street with such white tape all over their face, as if you were doing strange things at home? A lot, of course, to put a funny canvas with flowers on it.

But the claim in America goes further: two masks work better than one. The CDC relies on Experiments in which a mannequin full of sensors was fitted with a loose-fitting blue surgeon mask. A cloth mask over it, and the wearer immediately released about 1.5 times the airway drops. Even the floating droplets were five times less.

You can look at this. But the question is: Is it necessary? This is what the doctor specializing in microbiology Heiman Wertheim (Radboud UMC) says when asked. For example, the US study was not about wearing two masks, as the researchers themselves note, but about the question of how to better close the “open” mask. There is a simpler way to do this: wear a different mouthpiece.

Moreover, the reality is more complex than two models blowing droplets on each other in the lab. For example, Wertheim notes that in practice, virus particles often jump during times when the cover has been taken off for a while. With coffee. Or in the dressing room, if you meet a colleague. “We focus a lot on the sick, while transmission often happens precisely in these kinds of unprotected moments.”

There is an argument in this against wearing complex multi-hat contraptions. Whatever you do the most can make wearing a mask like this harder, heavier, and more repressive. And then you can’t survive either, Wertheim says. Indicates that A study from the time of the SARS virus, Is among the Chinese healthcare workers who then began wearing special N95 masks. Very good protection, but more than a third had headaches and 7 percent said they were sick. “Everyone is always thinking: more, more, more,” says Wertheim. “But we think: in addition to protection, also consider comfort so that you can handle well.”

In addition, the two-way trend in divided America has a political character. Some references. It was not without reason that Joe Biden was one of the first to wear two masks. If a mask radiates that you are taking the virus seriously, wearing two masks radiates that you are taking the virus … well, even more seriously.

a Another CDC experiment using cloth masks In the meantime, he’s learning another thing: There are other ways to improve a mouth mask that works moderately. An aluminum clip on the nose improved the masks’ filtering effect by 30 percent, and washed the nylon mask one time until doubled the hair. Other tricks include: using an extra rubber band, tying the straps behind the head rather than behind the ears, or rotating the ears to make them tighter. And “ensure a smooth and smooth face” is a wretched advice. “So that the mask fits the face as closely as possible.”

And in the end it is like this: stick to the full set of procedures, using masks and keeping your distance from home in case of a complaint. “People tend to attribute all kinds of supernatural powers to these mouth masks,” Wertheim notes. Whereas the vast majority of injuries occur in places where people do not wear a hat anyway: at home, on family visits, at parties, at work, in the pub.

There is no way to stop this. No two, three, or four can.