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Eric Jain's avatar

Wearing masks in crowded indoor spaces appears to have worked a bit too well for me: Never had as much as a sniffle during the pandemic, despite traveling more than usual. But as soon as I stopped wearing masks, I get sick 3 times within 4 months... Pre-pandemic, the only times I remember coming down with a full-blown cold was after long-distance flights (jetlag + lots of exposure?). So I'll keep wearing masks in airport terminals and when getting on or off airplanes.

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Jeff Lapides's avatar

I am not clear what is being said about the efficacy of masks. I have read a couple of articles recently. You might want to look up Don Milton's work at University of Maryland, College Park. I don't have a position because I don't know.

A small anecdote. I painted my kitchen cabinets and did some sanding with the doors off. Every opening had brown paper taped to cover the opening and many areas had plastic draped over it. Dust still got everywhere. Not a lot, but it still got everywhere.

One more thought. Physics is important. Many people reason about masks and viruses with the trying to "pickup sand with a tennis racket" model. But other forces are at play resulting from boundary conditions. To understand what I mean, think about how you light a match outside on windy day. You light it near a hard boundary because the wind speed there is zero. Masks do the same thing. So they can deflect a current of virus containing air even if they are porous.

My overall view is that stuff gets in with a typical mask but the goal is not to stop it but to lower it as much as possible: filtering some, deflection to even out density inhomogeneities. If there is a high average density, I don't think a mask will do much.

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