An international group of scientists under the guidance of researchers from the Institute of Chemistry of the Max Planck Company Society revealed the true effectiveness of medical masks to reduce the risk of infection with SARS-COV-2 coronavirus. Simple protection facilities can really successfully resist the transmission of infection, however, in hospitals and rooms with a large number of people, the respirators of the class N95 / FFP2 should be worn. In more detail about the study, it is described in the article published in the leading scientific journal Science.
Specialists have developed a quantitative model describing the effect of the virus contained in the air and based on measurements of the concentration of viral particles in rooms and on open areas. People most often are in conditions with a low concentration of the virus when medical masks successfully prevent infection. Usually only a small part of exhaled infected air contains viruses.
The dependence of the effectiveness of individual protection against the concentration of the virus in the air explains why in some conditions medical masks provide 70 percent protection against the virus, and in their other, their effectiveness is reduced to 30 percent. At the same time, Class N95 / FFP2 respirators reduce the likelihood of virus particles penetration into the body up to five percent.
Scientists have also shown that for successful fight against the pandemic, when the reproduction coefficient of the virus decreases from three (one infected can infect three healthy people) to less than one (for one new infected several carriers), it is necessary that surgical masks are necessary Correled 60-70 percent of the population, and in the case of respirators – 40 percent. For more dangerous strains of coronavirus, which are easier to be transferred from person to a person, the level of compliance with the mask mode should be higher.