LogFAQs > #942152917

dancer62 posted...

Put your glasses on. Blow your nose. Did droplets get on your glasses?

Uhh, no? Perhaps I'm just some kind of Kleenex magician, but that's not a problem I've ever had.

dancer62 posted...

We're not talking about blowing out candles. We're talking about aerosol droplets escaping through the open sides, as well as directly through the weave of cloth and paper masks. Who wears fitted respirator masks? Masks are symbolic, not magical.

Attempting to blow out a candle, however, very nicely illustrates just how much the air leaving your mouth is slowed down by the presence of any sort of barrier, however permeable (Bill Nye also demonstrates wearing a scarf, which makes it harder but not impossible to blow out the candle). Slow down the air, and you reduce the distance the droplets contained therein are able to travel.

Furthermore, you seem to be taking a very all-or-nothing approach to this. No, a cloth/paper mask will not provide 100% protection. Nothing short of a full-face SCBA will do that, and those aren't typical protocol for dealing with anything short of Ebola or Smallpox. That doesn't mean it does nothing, though, and the overwhelming opinion from the medical community (who generally understand a whole lot more about infection control than laypeople like yourself) is that the protection they do provide - however imperfect - is better than nothing.

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