NEW YORK — U.S. government researchers found that two masks are better than one in slowing coronavirus spread, but health officials stopped short of recommending that everyone double up.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday reported the results of a lab experiment that spaced two artificial heads 6 feet from each other and checked to see how many coronavirus-sized particles spewed by one were inhaled by the other.
The researchers found that wearing one mask — surgical or cloth — blocked around 40% of the particles coming toward the head that was breathing in. When a cloth mask was worn on top of a surgical mask, about 80% were blocked.
When both the exhaling and inhaling heads were double-masked, more than 95% of the particles were blocked, said the CDC’s Dr. John Brooks.
“The first challenge is to get as many as people as possible masking. And then for those that do mask, to help them get the best benefit out of that mask,” Brooks said.
The study had many limitations: The researchers used one brand of surgical mask and one kind of cloth mask, and it’s not clear if results would be the same with every product. But it echoes some earlier research that suggests two masks are better than one.
“It works,” Brooks said.
The CDC also was updating its guidance to address wearing two masks. If done correctly, a cloth mask worn over a surgical mask can tighten the gaps around the mask’s edges that can let virus particles in, the CDC said.
The agency also said it was taking down a do-it-yourself page, which went up last year when masks were in short supply and the CDC was encouraging people to take steps to interrupt viral transmission.
Some Americans have already started doubling up. Experts believe that’s at least partly out of concern about new strains of coronavirus that have been found to spread more easily than the one that has driven the U.S. epidemic for the past year
CDC guidance has evolved over the course of the epidemic.
Mask-wearing has long been common in some countries during respiratory outbreaks, especially in parts of Asia, but not in the United States.
When the COVID-19 crisis began and masks disappeared from store shelves, U.S. health officials actively discouraged the general public from wearing them. “Seriously people – STOP BUYING MASKS!” then-Surgeon General Jerome Adams wrote in a tweet almost a year ago.
Two months later, after it became clear that infected people who did not exhibit symptoms could spread the virus, the CDC began recommending people wear masks in public.
Mask-wearing increased and some places enforced mask mandates, but many Americans continue not to wear them. A recent University of California survey suggested that only about half of U.S. adults wear masks when in close contact with people outside their household.
Discussions about double-masking and higher-quality masks are important, said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases scientist at the University of Toronto.
“But if a significant proportion of your populations isn’t wearing a mask in the first place, then you’re having the wrong conversation,” he added.
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© 2021 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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I agree, I think all the DemonRats need 3 Mask over their mouth plus a plastic bag with duct tape, so that they can permanently free themselves from all diseases, especially their TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome)! Of course the the CDC is funded and endorsed by Big Pharma, Bill Gates, the Clinton Foundation, Dr. Fraudi and the list goes on and on, you know all the honest people and organizations we can love and trust!! BTW, I have some swamp land for sale, great for developing high rise apartments on!!
I wouldn’t trust what the CDC says, if they told me WATER WAS WET!
This is all bs to muzzle Americans that do not agree with communism.
And what’s the betting, WE WILL STAY muzzled till 2023 at the earliest.
You are only enslaved if you willingly submit to the self-appointed masters.
Instead, live free.
Masks used in the study were provided at no cost by the CCP.
Number one, with two or three masks, will anyone be able to talk? Secondly, with a mask on, the vapor from one’s breathing, is a breeding ground for bacteria. So the CDC and Dr. Fauci should only prescribe three masks for the communist Democrats, who will be foolish enough to use three masks, as the communist Democrats are sheep. With three masks on, the communist Democrats will not be able to talk. The CDC and Dr. Fauci in bed with the Chinese manufacturers of masks!!!
Remember if you can smell a fart through your mask you are not safe. When will the Dems tell us we need hazmat suits? 2 masks for a virus with a 99.4% survival rate. When you wear more masks your breathing will become shallow and that’s not good. You will try to breath harder forcing air in and out of the sides of the masks. This makes you even less safe than 1 properly fitted N95 mask. Will it ever stop?
No it will never stop, welcome to the “Insanity Train”!! COVID-19 has become a business for Big Pharma, The CDC, Bill Gates, Clinton Foundation!! has anyone realized that yet? Of course not! they will just socially distance themselves into bankruptcy and dependence on the Government!! this bottom dwellers have bambuzzeled the public, joke is on the public! they laugh all the way to the Bank, Gaven Newsom, Chris Cuomo, Lori “Beetle Juice” Lightfoot play by their own rules, go to their gourmet restaurants and drink champagne without mask and amongst friend while the idiots run in and out of a Chinese Restaurant for their drive up take out order like a bunch of paranoid sheep!!
NO.
Wil it stop? HELL NO.. They will never willingly relinquish this power they hold over all of us…
Stopping a virus with these masks is like stopping a misquote with a chain-link fence!!
All female Democratic politicians should be required to wear 4 or 5 masks because they are so dammed homely…..how bout that Lori Lightfoot!!!
A bra can be use single, with a friend who walks close, or a double barreled filter. Call them “love filters.” See; Playtex can double dip.
Do you suppose that the “powers that be” would be happy if we all just stopped breathing? Maybe not, though…might cut the tax base way down.
They’d just print out more money.. AND THEN REGISTER all the dead as new democrat voters.
The researchers also concluded that wearing three masks was even more effective in stopping the spread of the virus but they were unsure if this was because the masks were preventing the spread of the virus or because the test subjects had already expired due to acute hypercapnia. Aperture Science. We test because we can.
Researchers, have found, if you hold your breath long enough, you can’t catch Covid.
Well I can Identify with this idea. I remember in college when I noticed how good a six pack of Bud Light felt I naturally figured that two six packs of the same would be even much better. Unfortunately there was usually some collateral damage associated with that second six pack. It seems we may have a similar situation here because by the time us double maskers suck in an extra extended dose of our own carbon dioxide the scene may very well resemble that of a college keg party at about 1:00 AM.
I certainly take much comfort knowing that the people in charge of our national health strategies are so well educated and competent.
Just a smoke screen. They would actually prefer to suffocate all none conforming slaves. What’s next three masks or maybe a kotex.
Everyone has to buy govt issued scuba gear.. EVEN IF You live in your own home ALONE…
In other words, now the Usurper Biden is occupying OUR White House, they want to make our speech even harder to understand. Plus, they don’t mind if the lack of oxygen kills the majority of American (the majority who voted for Trump). They will just replace their surfs with those coming to the border. DOWN with them.
Remember, these are same people who told you to use Saran Wrap during oral sex.
I know someone, who TRIED that.. Once and only once.
Let’s cut to the chase; the virus is extremely tiny and the openings between the fibers in a mask are relatively huge thus allowing enormous numbers of viruses to flow through freely. If you wear multiple layers of masks, you will become unable to breathe before you stop the viruses. All this to say MASKS ARE USELESS.
Instead. Find a doctor who will prescribe PREVENTATIVE medicines (which have been used safely for decades) to protect yourself without experimental injections.
What about the early results that I heard about, in which doubling up masks caused more exhaled air (and the droplets it contains) to leak out the sides, bypassing the filter material altogether? Down the Memory Hole?
For once I can agree with the CDC. Since one mask has zero effect, two masks would have 0 squared effect and four masks would be 0 to the 4th power and eight masks would be 0 to the eighth power, etc. In the end, as those with the ability to do higher math can attest, it is still zero.