LogFAQs > #942420136

ScritchOwl posted...

honestly I doubt the proper mask wearers would get the corona virus

Masks aren't great at preventing infection, primarily because the eyes are a major route for respiratory tract infections (this is true of colds, influenza, and any other common illness, not just Covid). The tear ducts are a nice, moist direct line to the nasal passages, and bacteria and viruses love that. Masks keep the nose and mouth safe, but do nothing to protect the eyes, so while they're better than nothing, they're too unreliable to be the only protective measure at play.

In contrast, masks are great at preventing people who are already infected from transmitting it to others. That happens almost purely via the nose and mouth (I would expect tears to also be infectious, but tears don't spread easily enough to really matter), so if you cover them up, you get a degree of protection equivalent to the effectiveness of that covering (well short of 100% in the case of non-sealing cloth masks, but still a lot better than people give them credit for). People can't rely on wearing a mask themselves to be safe from infection, but they can rely on infected people wearing masks to provide that safety. Where a- and pre-symptomatic transmission is such a big problem with this virus, the best course of action is therefore for everyone to wear a mask regardless of whether or not they're symptomatic, since it's all but impossible for anyone to know for certain that they aren't infectious.

As an added bonus, if both the infectious person and the healthy person are wearing a mask, those layers of protection do stack and reduce the transmission rate far below what you'd see with just one person wearing it. Even more reason to have as many people as possible wearing them. It's just the safest option for everyone involved.

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