According to a new study by the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, the risk of infection when an infected person and a healthy person meet in an indoor space at short distance is a good one per thousand (0.1 percent) when an FFP2 mask is worn correctly. The prerequisite is the correct fit of the FFP2 or KN95 mask, writes the team around Institute Director Eberhard Bodenschatz in the “Proceedings” of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (“PNAS”).
With poorly fitting FFP2 masks, on the other hand, the risk of infection in the same scenario is around four percent, the team calculates. For optimal protection, the nose clip must be worn so that it presses laterally on the nostrils.
The researchers calculated the risk of infection by combining various factors such as particle sizes, physics during exhalation, various mask types and risk of inhaling coronaviruses. “In daily life, the actual probability of infection is certainly ten to a hundred times smaller,” Bodenschatz is quoted as saying in a news release from the institute. That’s because the breathing air that flows out of the mask at the edges is diluted, he said. However, the researchers had wanted to calculate the risk as conservatively as possible.
- source:derstandard.at/picture: pixabay.com
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