Quote (Goomshill @ Dec 23 2021 07:31pm)
Particles get swept around with such wide dispersal due to fluid dynamics that its ineffective at stopping an airborne viral infection. They aren't ballistic projectiles that travel a parabolic path and stop, its a cloud of matter going in every direction with every breath. The force we impart exhaling isn't as important as the fluid movements of air flows in the environments. Its why I always disregarded experiments where they study dispersal patterns of particulate in some sterile, static laboratory condition with no fluid motion at all. You breath particles out, then they get swept away. Just the act of walking displaces the air and creates turbulence. Every sound we hear is air pressure. If someone farts, I'll hear it and I'll smell it. And with a virus, cutting out some of that smell is ineffective at stopping a self-replicating threat that needs only establish an infection. And the evidence so far is that mask wearing doesn't correlate to any substantial outcome difference
You're reducing the amount in the air though because of the amount that's being stopped at the source. Just like the particals that don't escape your pants when you let on fly.
I haven't seen a single study to date yet that hasn't concluded that there's a reduction in the amount droplets into the air.
Unfortunetly public use of the mask is horrendous. People don't cover their nose or mouth properly. They frequently pull down their mask to talk. There's no washing of a mask and the same mask is used for months. Etc.
This post was edited by SBD on Dec 23 2021 08:39pm