If You're Not Doing This, Your Mask Won't Protect You, Study Says
By Allie Hogan
of Best Life
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If You're Not Doing This, Your Mask Won't Protect You, Study Says
Wearing a mask is one of the simplest and most essential steps you can take to protect yourself and help stop the spread of COVID. However, a recent study concluded that just wearing a mask—that is, without adhering to other key precautions—may not actually help protect you. The study, published in
The study set out to decipher whether face masks are able to provide protection from airborne sneeze and cough droplets when people are close together in face-to-face interactions. Researchers used a machine to simulate coughs and sneezes against five different types of masks, including an N95 mask, a surgical mask, a two-layer cloth mask, a regular cloth, and a wet two-layer cloth mask. They found that face masks aren't always effective in protecting people from COVID when they're not at least six feet apart.