By Dr Omarlin Kyndiah
The WhatApps video circulation by a group that call themselves Freedom From Mask or #MaskSe Azaadi is going viral. The point put forward by the group is about the efficacy of mask filtration, and the impact of masks on re-breathing our exhaled carbon dioxide. Lack of understanding of the particle and particle size, both the of the virus and the mask leads to confusion and misinformation. This claimed share on social media is not based on scientific evidence.
A carbon dioxide molecule is 0.33 nanometre diameter (nm is 1000 lesser than a micrometer). The molecule is smaller than the droplets containing coronavirus, which is approximately 100 nm or 0.1 micrometer. So, the first thing to note is that carbon dioxide is going to flow through any mask without any trouble. There is no known mask material that will filter 0.33nm molecules. If it did, you wouldn’t be able to breathe at all!
The other argument of the Freedom From Mass or #MaskSe Azaadi is that viruses can easily go through the mask. This is also a false and misleading claim. Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, named COVID 19 by the World Health Organisation, does not float freely in the air. When we speak we produce droplets between 20 and 2000 micrometers (µm) in diameter in which the larger droplets fall to the ground quickly, which is relative to humidity. At a relative humidity of 50%, droplets with initial radii larger than about 50 micrometers rapidly fall to the ground while smaller, potentially-virus containing droplets shrink (because the droplets evaporate) in size to around 1 micrometer and remain air borne for many minutes.
Small particles do not fly straight through materials, but instead follow Brownian motion, resulting in them coming in contact with material even when the material weave is larger than the particle. Many materials, such as Surgical Masks, the N95 Filtering face pieces (N95 FFs) or even the cloth mask have a complex weave which makes it very difficult for particles to fully penetrate.
Materials like chiffon and silk also have electro-static effects that result in charge transfer with nano-size aerosol particles, making them particularly effective at excluding particles in the nanoscale (<∼100 nm). There is a study that looked at the protective effect of a simple cloth mask for speech droplet source control that found that approximately 99% of the forward-facing droplets visible in a laser chamber were blocked. Overall, there is evidence that simple cloth face masks will generally provide good protection to those around the wearer. This is possible because droplets expelled during speech are much larger than the droplet nuclei that later turn into smaller droplets through evaporation. This supports the fact that while speaking, to cover the mouth with a mask helps to check the wearer from being infected, as well as can prevent those who have symptoms from spreading them, which will greatly help end the pandemic more quickly. Therefore, mandating the use of face masks in public especially when visiting busy, closed spaces, such as grocery stores, shopping centres, or when using public transport, etc may serve as a means of source control to reduce the spread of the infection in the community by minimising the excretion of droplets from infected individuals who have not yet developed symptoms or who remain asymptomatic
So if Freedom From Mask or #MaskSe Azaadi or anyone claims that masks can’t possibly stop COVID-19 because the virus is too small, now you know why they’re totally wrong. The #MaskSe Azadi group in their campaign for freedom from the mask by burning the mask in public places is the destruction of the symbol of global unity in the fight against the Covid 19 pandemic. Finally, I will conclude with a quote from George Bernard Shaw, “Beware of false knowledge, it is more dangerous than ignorance”.
( The writer teaches Biochemistry in St. Edmund’s College, Shillong)