Researchers clarify: Don’t dismiss the neck gaiter as a facemask failure
Remember the Duke study that seemed to suggest a neck gaiter can spread more COVID than no mask at all? Its authors now say their findings were misconstrued. Gaiters may be OK after all.
“Our intent was not to say this mask doesn’t work or never use neck gaiters,” corresponding author Martin Fischer, PhD, tells the New York Times. “This was not the main part of the paper.”
Times consumer healthcare writer Tara Parker-Pope also speaks with aerosol expert Linsey Marr, PhD, of Virginia Tech, who has tested one- and two-layer gaiters.
Marr and a colleague found both styles prevented 100% of large saliva droplets from traveling 30 centimeters and blocked at least 50% of aerosolized droplets up to 1 micron in size.
The single-layer design did flop at stopping tiny aerosols, filtering out only 10%, but when it was doubled up with another single-layer gaiter, it kept more than 90% out of the air.
“The fabrics are not acting as a sharp sieve” to break large droplets into many smaller and lighter ones, Marr explains. “That’s not how filtration works.”
Parker-Pope synopsizes input from other experts before circling back to Fischer at Duke.
Fischer underscores that the aim of his team’s study was not to pick winners and losers but to facilitate broad testing of mask materials.
“Our intent was for this technology to get out there so companies and organizations can test their own masks,” he says. “A mask doesn’t have to be perfect for it to work.”
Read the whole thing at the Times.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.