3 Reasons Why Wearing a Face Mask Is Good for Preventing Coronavirus

 The most effective ways to prevent coronavirus is to refrain from going out and wash your hands frequently and correctly.

 When it comes to masks, even among experts, there is a controversy over whether it is necessary to wear a face mask to prevent coronavirus.

 However, if it is worn correctly, such as not touching the inside of the mask with contaminated hands, a face mask can be a great help in preventing coronavirus infection and spread.

1. It prevents you from touching your nose and mouth.

 You can be infected with coronavirus if you touch something that is contaminated by the virus and then touch your mouth, nose, or eyes.

 Public officials have warned people not to touch their faces to prevent infection, but some of them touched their faces even during the speech.

 It is difficult to fix habits in a short time, and most people habitually touch their faces with their hands often. Masks helps prevent you from touching your mouth and nose with contaminated hands.

2. It blocks the vehicles for the transmission of coronavirus

 The diameter of the virus particles is around 120 to 125 nm, or 0.00012 to 0.000125 mm. Particulate respirators, such as FFP2, KF94 and N95 respirators, are known to block particles of approximately 4 to 6 ㎛, or 0.004 to 0.006 mm. Therefore, no matter how good a mask is, it can’t block the virus itself.

 However, Particulate respirators block the vehicles for the transmission of coronavirus. It is known that viruses can’t travel on their own. Even if they can move, it is too far away for viruses to move among people.

 Assuming that the virus needs to travel 1 meter to transmit the disease, and converting it into human size, the length is as follows.

The diameter of the virus particles

120nm = 0.00012mm

Height of human

1.8m = 1800mm

∴ The ratio of height of human to the diameter of the virus particles is

1800mm/0.00012mm = 15,000,000 = 1.5 x 10⁷

∴ 1m x 1.5 x 10⁷ = 15000 km

 A meter to the virus equals 15,000km to people. It is similar to the average east-west length of the Pacific Ocean of 16,000 km. Just as humans need ships or planes to cross the Pacific Ocean, viruses also need vehicles to cross the air and infect other people, such as droplets and aerosols.

 Particulate respirators block these vehicles of the virus. The size of the drops exhaled by sneeze, cough and speech is known as approximately 5㎛, so the higher rated masks are worn, the more these particles can be blocked.

3. It has a similar effect to herd immunity.

 When a sufficient number of the population has become immune to a contagious disease, it is called herd immunity. If the majority of the group members wear face masks, it has a similar effect to herd immunity.

 Wearing face masks not only prevents the vehicles for the transmission of coronavirus from entering the body, but also prevents people infected with the virus from spreading the disease.