Dani Manriquez, a second-year in social services, said she wears two masks to better protect those around her, including her girlfriend, who has cystic fibrosis. Credit: Jessica Orozco | Lantern Reporter
As new, more contagious variants of COVID-19 emerge in Columbus and around the globe, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended giving normal face masks some company and doubling up.
Wearing two masks or one tight-fitting mask substantially reduces the risk of COVID-19 infection, according to a report published by the CDC Wednesday.
In lab tests conducted with dummies, wearing a three-ply cloth mask over top of a three-ply medical or surgical mask blocked 92.5 percent of respiratory particles a person releases when coughing, the report reads.
One surgical mask blocked 42 percent of particles, while a cloth mask blocked 44.3 percent.
Double masking adds extra layers of filtration to prevent respiratory droplets from escaping the mask, Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, chief quality and patient safety officer for the Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State, said.
“The typical surgical mask, procedural mask or even a well-made cloth mask all do really quite a nice job of decreasing respiratory droplet exhalation,” Gonsenhauser said. “The places to be careful are loose bandanas or the very thin material neck gaiters — those don’t seem to really offer as much protection.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a Feb. 3 White House COVID-19 briefing that many people are not following masking requirements and public health measures that would adequately address the transmissibility of COVID-19 mutants.
Gonsenhauser said neck gaiters can be worn if they have surgical masks underneath, serving as a foundation to protect the wearer and the surrounding people. He said effective cloth masks shouldn’t let light through them, but it’s a myth that odors shouldn’t be able to pass through masks — some smells will almost always make it through.
Reusable masks should be washed after each use, and disposable masks should only be used once, Gonsenhauser said.
N95 masks, federally approved masks that filter at least 95 percent of airborne particles, are only necessary in situations where social distancing is not possible, and should mostly be reserved for health care workers, Gonsenhauser said. KN95 masks, the popular sibling of the N95, undergo a less strict regulatory process before going on the market.
“KN95s have been the source of a lot of counterfeits and knockoffs, and because of that, we know there are a lot of fake KN95s on the market. And for that reason, we’re really encouraging people to avoid them,” Gonsenhauser said.
Dani Manriquez, a second-year in social services, said she double masks to protect her girlfriend, who has a compromised immune system from cystic fibrosis– a genetic lung disease that can cause breathing and digestion problems.
Manriquez said she transitioned to wearing two masks when she heard about new COVID-19 variants being discovered in the U.S. and wanted to be as safe as possible.
“I think it’s important to start to normalize double masking, especially with the new mutation. We only just discovered the mutation, but it’s been around for a while,” Manriquez said. “It’s better to be safe than sorry. We never know what’s gonna come next, especially to just help your part to end the pandemic.”
Scientists at Ohio State discovered a new variant of the coronavirus in January, believed to have originated in the U.S. and to be more infectious than the original strain.
“People are feeling really tired of the pandemic; they’re fatigued from these precautions — there’s a lot of apathy,” Gonsenhauser said. “And as a result of that, there’s complacency as well. Every time you shortchange any of those precautions, we’re creating opportunities for this virus to spread, and with new variants that are more transmissible, every gap in that protection is much more meaningful.”
