{"id":1156,"date":"2020-07-18T22:58:05","date_gmt":"2020-07-18T22:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=1156"},"modified":"2025-09-29T14:01:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T14:01:17","slug":"evidence-is-growing-masks-do-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=1156","title":{"rendered":"Evidence is growing – masks do matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mask<\/a><\/p>\n

The article is in the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n

But first here are some stats from the BBC – the death rates per million from COVID in three countries:<\/p>\n

Great Britain – 600\/1,000,000<\/p>\n

United States – 400\/1,000,000<\/p>\n

Japan – 7\/1,000,000<\/p>\n

That's right, Japan has phenomenally fewer deaths and virtually everyone wears a mask in public. That has to be a factor, although perhaps not the only one.<\/p>\n

Here's the WSJ article – unfortunately the useful graphs couldn't be transferred over …<\/p>\n

Researchers from around the world have found wearing even a basic cloth face covering is more effective in reducing the spread of Covid-19 than wearing nothing at all. And many are now examining the possibility that masks might offer some personal protection from the virus, despite initial thinking that they mostly protect others.<\/a><\/p>\n

The study found that aerosol-size droplets expelled from the mannequin with the double-layered cotton mask traveled forward about 2.5 inches on average, and that most of the leakage escaped from gaps between the nose and face. Loosely fitting facial coverings, including a folded cotton handkerchief with ear loops, as well as a bandanna were less helpful, the study found. With those masks, droplets traveled on average about 1.25 and 3.5 feet, respectively. In contrast, the study found droplets traveled about 8 inches on average with an off-the-shelf cone-shaped mask.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, droplets from an uncovered cough traveled around 8 feet on average, though the study found that they could travel up to 12 feet\u2014double the currently recommended social-distancing guideline of 6 feet. Leakage from a common disposable surgical mask wasn\u2019t studied, though two of the study\u2019s authors, Siddhartha Verma and Manhar Dhanak, said they are working on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was surprising in a good way to see that a homemade mask could do so well\u2026that we don\u2019t have to get a very fancy mask,\u201d Dr. Verma said. \u201cA cotton mask can be washed at home and dried. Reusability is becoming important as we go into this for the long haul.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yay<\/strong> to double layered at home stuff – that's what we use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The article is in the Wall Street Journal. But first here are some stats from the BBC – the death rates per million from COVID in three countries: Great Britain – 600\/1,000,000 United States – 400\/1,000,000 Japan – 7\/1,000,000 That's right, Japan has phenomenally fewer deaths and virtually everyone wears a mask in public. That […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6383,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156\/revisions\/6383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}