LogFAQs > #948950242

Compared to being 2 feet away from a person (pretty normal for walking past somebody), being 6 feet away reduces the aerosol density (which is very closely linked to infection rate) you're exposed to by a factor of 27 (increasing radius by a factor of 3 means increasing volume by a factor of 3^3=27), or a 96.3% reduction. Compared to being 1 foot away (which is uncomfortably close, but not uncommon in theatres, planes, or public transit), it's a 216-fold reduction (99.5%). Specific data on how much masks reduce transmission rates are kind of hard to find, but the numbers generally don't look that good.

There's a reason mask mandates generally amount to "wear a mask wherever it's difficult to reliably maintain distancing." Between the two, distancing is substantially more effective. Distancing is, however, substantially harder to maintain, especially indoors (both because there's less room to spread out and because recycling air diminishes the effectiveness of distancing), so masks are recommended to ensure continued protection when distancing fails. Fortunately, they're not at all mutually exclusive, so you can often do both at the same time and enjoy even greater protection.

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