I continue to be perplexed about one little physical detail in all of the hoo-hawing about masks/no masks: Are folks who keep yammering about the *particle size* of SARS-CoV-2 virus being less than the average pore size (0.3 microns) of N95 masks operating under the impression that INDIVIDUAL virus molecules waft out into the breeze dur…
I continue to be perplexed about one little physical detail in all of the hoo-hawing about masks/no masks: Are folks who keep yammering about the *particle size* of SARS-CoV-2 virus being less than the average pore size (0.3 microns) of N95 masks operating under the impression that INDIVIDUAL virus molecules waft out into the breeze during exhalation? Surely that's not an accurate account of what must be happening. SARS-CoV-2 virus molecules can leave infected patients only as passengers on tiny "globs" (?) of exhaled mucoid secretions. It is the smallness of such "globs" that affords putative escape of the virus through the N95 product. By definition, the "globs" must be larger than the stated max dimension of any given virus molecule (0.125 micron) or for that matter, of any other passenger pathogen.
PPE experts argue that masking actually aerosolizes the virus during a “plosive event” or forced exhale (yelling, coughing, sneezing) that would have otherwise fallen to the ground in a predictable pattern on the “globs”. Megan Mansell has done excellent work on this. Here’s one link but she’s written a book on it https://brownstone.org/articles/why-n95-masks-fail-to-stop-spread/
I continue to be perplexed about one little physical detail in all of the hoo-hawing about masks/no masks: Are folks who keep yammering about the *particle size* of SARS-CoV-2 virus being less than the average pore size (0.3 microns) of N95 masks operating under the impression that INDIVIDUAL virus molecules waft out into the breeze during exhalation? Surely that's not an accurate account of what must be happening. SARS-CoV-2 virus molecules can leave infected patients only as passengers on tiny "globs" (?) of exhaled mucoid secretions. It is the smallness of such "globs" that affords putative escape of the virus through the N95 product. By definition, the "globs" must be larger than the stated max dimension of any given virus molecule (0.125 micron) or for that matter, of any other passenger pathogen.
PPE experts argue that masking actually aerosolizes the virus during a “plosive event” or forced exhale (yelling, coughing, sneezing) that would have otherwise fallen to the ground in a predictable pattern on the “globs”. Megan Mansell has done excellent work on this. Here’s one link but she’s written a book on it https://brownstone.org/articles/why-n95-masks-fail-to-stop-spread/