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According to the study, this type of masks manage to reduce the risk of contagion by between 94 and 99 percent in situations where you are near an infected person for more than 20 minutes.
Researchers from the University of Arizona (United States) have proven, in a study published in the 'Journal of Hospital Infection', that N99 masks are the most effective in preventing the spread of the new coronavirus. And, as they have observed, this type of mask manages to reduce the risk of contagion by between 94 and 99 percent in situations in which one spends more than 20 minutes near an infected person.
The next most recommended masks are N95 and surgical masks, and even vacuum cleaner filters, which can be inserted into the pockets of cloth masks. In fact, experts have found that they reduce the risk of infection by up to 83 percent when exposed to the virus for 30 seconds, and 58 percent when exposed to the infection for 20 minutes.
Likewise, experts have shown that scarves can reduce the risk of contagion by 44 percent and that, in addition, wearing a cloth t-shirt as a mask can be more effective than wearing nothing. To reach this conclusion, experts collected data from several studies on the effectiveness of masks and created a computer model to simulate the risk of infection, taking into account several factors.
The study also showed that the more time a person spends in an environment where the virus is present, the less effective a mask becomes, which is why researchers have warned that they cannot reduce the risk of infection "to zero."
"The denser the fibers of a material, the better the filtering. That's why a higher thread count leads to greater effectiveness. There is simply more to block the virus. But some masks (like silk ones) also have electrostatic properties, which can attract smaller particles and prevent them from also passing through the mask," the researchers detailed.
