Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

December 30, 2020

Can Face Masks Offer Protection from Airborne Sneeze and Cough Droplets in Close-up, Face-to-Face Human Interactions?—A Quantitative Study

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With the exception of N95 masks, face coverings would not offer complete protection for a susceptible person exposed to coughing or sneezing of an infected person within 6 feet according to droplet flow visualization experiments. While no potentially virus-carrying particles were observed to leak through N95 masks when worn as protection, enough particles were found to leak through other face coverings, such as surgical and double-layer cloth masks, to expose the wearer to a sufficiently infectious dose.

Akhtar et al. (Dec 22, 2020). Can Face Masks Offer Protection from Airborne Sneeze and Cough Droplets in Close-up, Face-to-Face Human Interactions?—A Quantitative Study. Physics of Fluids. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0035072