Scientists at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland have found that face masks reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus through large droplets by 99.9 percent. Researchers have also predicted the number of people who will die from COVID-19 over the next few months due to non-compliance with the mask regime. This is reported in an article published in the Royal Society Open Science.
Experts have found that a person standing next to a coughing infected person will get ten thousand times more drops than if the infected person wore a mask and stood even 50 centimeters away from him. Moreover, large droplets are considered the main factor in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Smaller droplets with a diameter of 20-30 microns can remain in the air for a long time.
The researchers focused on aerosol particles with a diameter of 170 microns, which is about 2-4 times the thickness of a human hair. It turned out that the risk of transmission of the virus is reduced by an order of magnitude if a coughing or sneezing person wears a mask.
According to estimates, if people did not refuse to wear masks, it could save 55 thousand lives over the next four months. In the world, this number will be 400 thousand people for the same period.