Photo by: AP Photo / Rogelio V. Solis
A government study published on Wednesday, February 10, 2021, finds that wearing two masks can be better than one, to protect against coronavirus infection.
Amid concerns over new strains of COVID-19 in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidelines and a new report on best practices for wearing masks on Wednesday.
According to the report, experiments conducted by the CDC showed that exposure to potentially infectious aerosols decreased by about 95% when two mannequins wore tight masks – either by knotting and wrapping a medical procedure mask or by covering a cloth mask over a procedure. medical. mask, also known as “double masking”.
Dr. Thomas Marcellino, Douglas County Health Officer, said strategies such as double masking have become more and more common in people’s minds.
“I think what happened is that we see these variants and we see that the spread is easier, so we start thinking, ‘How can we deal with these situations? “We can do better with masks,” Marcellino said in a telephone interview with Journal-World on Wednesday.
Journal-World spoke individually with Marcellino and Dr. Jennifer Schrimsher, an infectious disease physician at LMH Health, about the double masking strategy. The two doctors agreed that while two masks – if worn correctly – would likely increase protection, the most pressing issue was to get the general public to wear a mask properly.
“If you put two fences or two layers of chicken fence, it is more likely to be effective than one layer of chicken fence. But if you’re just trying to keep the puppies, you only need one coat, ”Schrimsher said.
Marcellino said the current recommendation to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health was that masks should have at least two layers, completely cover their nose and mouth, and fit perfectly on the nose and side of the face. He said that several layers would probably provide better protection against inhaled particles.
“It’s about finding a balance, really, about how you can breathe and function and still have protection against any contaminants or viruses,” he said.
Schrimsher also said it was important for the masks to be easy to breathe. If a mask has too many layers and is difficult to breathe, then people will suck air from the sides of the mask, which will defeat the purpose of wearing one, she said.
“A multi-layered mask will probably be more beneficial to the wearer than trying to stack a bunch of masks and not be able to breathe,” she said. “If we could get people to wear a mask properly, we’d be in a much better place.”
Of course, if someone wants to wear two masks, it will provide extra protection as long as the masks fit properly, Marcellino said. People at high risk for the virus may choose to double their mask as long as they are able to function safely and breathe well.
The two strategies used in the recent CDC study – double masking and knotting and wrapping the ear loops of a medical procedure mask – were both designed to create a tighter fit that provides more protection. The double-masking strategy used by the CDC experiments specifically involved wearing a disposable mask under a cloth mask. The CDC experiments did not include other combinations of masks, such as cloth over cloth, mask for medical procedure over mask for medical procedure, or mask for medical procedure over cloth.
Photo by: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
An infographic from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows how wearing a tight-fitting mask can help limit the spread of COVID-19.
But the updated CDC mask guide says people should not wear two disposable masks or combine a KN95 mask with any other type of mask. Disposable masks for medical procedures are not designed to fit tightly, says the guide, so wearing more than one will not improve the fit.
The CDC did not provide an explanation for why people should not combine a KN95 mask with another type of mask and did not answer a question in the Journal-World asking why. According to the CDC website, a KN95 mask is a type of filter mask that is often made in China and is similar to the N95 masks commonly used in the United States.
Marcellino and Schrimsher said that N95 masks filter well on their own and that wearing a second mask under an N95 mask would worsen the seal of an N95 mask. But Marcellino also said that when he wears an N95 mask, he usually wears another mask over it to protect it from dirt.
For instructions on how to tie and hide the earrings of a medical procedure mask to improve fit, CDC linked a YouTube video to UNC Health entitled “Pro Tip to Help Your Earloop Mask Fit Better.”
Marcellino said that he considered that the renewed attention to masks and their effectiveness were brought by the newly detected variants of COVID-19. Schrimsher said the UK version, which is more transmissible, would likely be the predominant strain in the United States by the end of March. She also said that at this moment there seems to be a pause in the cases reported by COVID-19.
“It feels calm again before the storm,” she said.
If the new COVID-19 variants send the number of cases in Douglas County in the wrong direction and the hospital becomes overwhelmed, Marcellino said the health department might need to recommend double masking.
“Currently, there is no evidence that it is widely distributed,” Marcellino said of the COVID-19 variant in the United Kingdom. The variant was identified in Kansas on February 3.
“It has the potential to become more prominent and we try to avoid that. That’s why the use of masks is important, because we have to assume that it could be here “, said Marcellino.
More information from the CDC on how to make your mask fit better:
The updated CDC mask guide includes additional information on how to improve the fit of a mask for better protection.
The CDC lists two important ways to make sure a mask fits properly. First, make sure it fits perfectly on your face and that there are no gaps around your nose, side or neck that could allow air with respiratory droplets to leak in and out of the edges. Second, choose a multi-layered mask to keep your breathing drops inside and others’ drops outside.
Here are some other tips from the CDC:
• Choose a wire mask for the nose.
• Use a mask or strap fastener.
• If your cloth mask does not have multiple layers, you can add another protective layer by wearing a disposable mask under the cloth mask.
• Knot and hide the ear curls of a medical mask.