CDC recommends double-masking for more protection against COVID-19

[Stone]

CDC recommends double-masking for more protection against COVID-19

NY Post | February 10, 2021

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that everyone wear two face coverings — after a new study found that doubling up can improve mask performance against COVID-19 by about 50 percent.

Wearing a cloth covering over a medical procedure mask or disposable mask significantly helps reduce exposure to the deadly bug, the CDC study found.

The agency said it studied two ways of improving the use of medical masks — “fitting a cloth mask over a medical procedure mask, and knotting the ear loops of a medical procedure mask and then tucking in and flattening the extra material close to the face.”

It said that “each modification substantially improved source control and reduced wearer exposure.”

In lab tests with dummies, exposure to potentially infectious aerosols decreased by about 95 percent when they both wore tight-fitting masks, according to the study.

Other effective options to improve mask use include using a mask fitter or a nylon covering, the CDC said.

It recommends choosing a mask with a nose wire — a metal strip along the top that prevents air from leaking. The wire should be molded over the nose for a snug fit, which can be checked by cupping your hands around the outside edges of the mask.

Users should make sure no air is escaping from the area under their eyes or from the sides of the mask, the agency said.

The CDC also recommends adding layers of material, including using a cloth mask that has several layers of fabric.

Meanwhile, the agency warns against combining two disposable masks, which are not designed to fit tightly, or combining a KN95 mask with any other covering.

“What we want to do is now help consumers make mask-wearing work better for them,” Dr. John Brooks, the CDC’s chief medical officer for COVID-19 response, who co-authored the new study, told Business Insider.

“There’ve been a number of different ways, simple ways, low-tech ways, that people can improve the performance of their mask,” he added. “More layers helps, better fit is critical.”

In the study, the researchers put masks on two dummy heads — one that coughed and breathed into the air and another head about six feet away from the first.

They measured how much of the would-be infectious particles the first dummy spewed made it over to the second head.

Both cloth and surgical masks alone did “OK” at filtering particles out of the air, Brooks said.

A surgical mask alone on the cougher blocked about 42 percent of the particles from the healthy head, while the cloth one blocked more than 44 percent, the study found.

But when they put a cloth mask over a surgical mask, they found the double masking dramatically improved the performance of both masks, blocking 92.5 percent of the cough particles.

[Stone]

Oh, There’s Another Layer of Nonsense Behind the CDC’s Latest Double Masking Study

Townhall.com | Feb 13, 2021 12:35 AM

No one elected these people. No one. And yet, with every passing day, the COVID protocols put forward by Democrats and shored up by the liberal media, who have peddled non-stop panic, look nothing more than an ongoing exercise in government control. How far and how long they can ride this pony. Many of you already knew this from the start. When we look back and wonder where things went off the rails, it has to be the advice on masks.

Don’t wear masks. That was the initial advice, which then became maybe wear some form of cloth over your face, to wear masks, and finally the talk about double-masking. Why not triple or quadruple? Dr. Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden’s unelected COVID czar, even said the data showing double masking being effective simply isn't there. But later said that it might make sense. What is it, dude?

You cannot play both sides of the fence on stuff like this and you don’t need to be a medical expert to know that. This isn’t a science lab. This is public policy, and this sort of catch-all mentality to avoid looking like a fool when doling out advice is a prescription for killing public trust. Oh, and it also makes you look like a total idiot.  Frankly, we’re already there regarding the death of the expert. Most seen on CNN and MSNBC are no better than the paid operatives that contribute on guest panels on those liberal networks.

Fauci on double masking:

“There’s no data that indicates that that is going to make a difference” pic.twitter.com/ptVivQfuwt

— Eli Klein (@TheEliKlein) January 31, 2021

The new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on double masking was covered by Katie who noted that it’s based on mannequins with the notation that this has no real-world applicability:

"New data released from CDC today underscored the importance of wearing a mask correctly and making sure it fits closely and snuggly over your nose and mouth. In this new study researchers used experiments in the laboratory, not the real world, to access different strategies to improve the different fits of masks impacts a mask's ability to block aerosolized particles emitted during a simulated cough as well as to reduce exposure to aerosol particles emitted during simulating breathing. The size of the aerosol particles in the experiment were designed to mimic the respiratory droplet particles most important for person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky released in a video statement.

"I want to be clear that these new scientific data released today do not change the specific recommendations on who should wear a mask and when they should wear one. But they do provide new information on why wearing a well fitting mask is important," she added.

And that’s the key right there. No one is wearing well-fitted masks. They’re also all made in China which is the seat of irony. Better yet, did you catch the second layer of this nonsense regarding how to make your mask fit better: pull a layer of pantyhose over your head. That’s pretty much what they said.

“Other studies found that knotting and tucking a medical procedure mask or placing a sleeve made of sheer nylon hosiery material around the neck and pulling it up over either a cloth of medical procedure mask also significantly improved the wearer’s protection by fitting the mask more tightly to the wearer’s face and reducing edge gaps.”

Phil Kerpen of American Commitment found that nugget. No, I’m not double masking—I already had the virus—and I’m not putting pantyhose over my face. We have long gone off the rails here.

I’ll circle back to the mass Danish study they did on mask-wearing and reducing COVID. It didn’t do much, which led to The New York Times adding their spin in the headline for that story. Look, California has hardcore lockdown measures for COVID with a near-universal mask compliance rate. It had one million cases in six weeks over the holidays. The narrative of ‘masks work’ has to be sent back to the drawing board because the numbers, the policies, and the infection rates in these lockdown states paint a different picture. I wouldn’t suggest doing it the New York way, which is cooking the books on the death toll either.