The CDC Admission: Mask Effectiveness up in Flames
The Centers for Disease Control continues to take pains to remind Americans to wear their masks when they are out in public.
A missive from CDC that encouraged COVID safety during the Labor Day holiday says: "Do your part to help slow the spread of COVID-19 this Labor Day weekend. If you go to a park, beach, event or gathering, be sure to" do several things, including: "Wear a mask to protect yourself and others."
On its website, the CDC offers guidance on mask selection. Masks should "have two or more layers of washable, breathable fabric," they proclaim.
Such a mask, the CDC suggests, will filter the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, from the air we breath.
Will it?
The size of the virus based on electron micrographs show that the virus varies from 60 to 140 nanometers in diameter (.06 to .14 microns). N95 filters provide filtration down to .3 microns. On this basis alone, they should not be relied on for protection from small virus particles such as those of SARS-CoV-2.