How effective are face coverings in reducing transmission of COVID-19?
| Autor: | Joshua F. Robinson, Fergus J. Moore, Husain L, C. P. Royall, Jonathan P. Reid, Richard P. Sear, Gregson Fka, Anda IRd |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
business.industry Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 010501 environmental sciences 01 natural sciences Airborne transmission 3. Good health law.invention 03 medical and health sciences Surgical mask 0302 clinical medicine Optics Transmission (telecommunications) law Face (geometry) 030212 general & internal medicine Droplet Transmission business Filtration 0105 earth and related environmental sciences |
| DOI: | 10.1101/2020.12.01.20241992 |
| Popis: | In the COVID–19 pandemic, among the more controversial issues is the use of face coverings. To address this we show that the underlying physics ensures particles with diameters ≳1 µm are efficiently filtered out by a simple cotton or surgical mask. For particles in the submicron range the efficiency depends on the material properties of the masks, though generally the filtration efficiency in this regime varies between 30 to 60 % and multi-layered cotton masks are expected to be comparable to surgical masks.Respiratory droplets are conventionally divided into coarsedroplets(≳5–10 µm) responsible fordroplet transmissionandaerosols(≳ 5–10 µm) responsible forairborne transmission. Masks are thus expected to be highly effective at preventing droplet transmission, with their effectiveness limited only by the mask fit, compliance and appropriate usage. By contrast, knowledge of the size distribution of bioaerosols and the likelihood that they contain virus is essential to understanding their effectiveness in preventing airborne transmission. We argue from literature data on SARS-CoV-2 viral loads that the finest aerosols (≳ 1 µm) are unlikely to contain even a single virion in the majority of cases; we thus expect masks to be effective at reducing the risk of airborne transmission in most settings. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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