Those Surgical Masks Aren’t Actually Doing Much to Protect You From Coronavirus

If you are a person who has come anywhere near the news cycle in recent weeks, you’ve probably heard various reports of a coronavirus-driven surgical mask shortage threatening to sweep the planet while mask-producers race to keep up with demands.

So why is everyone stockpiling medical masks? Probably for no good reason, according to Vice. As health reporter Katie Way pointed out, a fact sheet from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration emphasizes that surgical masks are not intended to prevent healthy people from contracting airborne illnesses, nor are they a particularly effective means of doing so.

“Surgical masks are not designed to seal tightly against the user’s face,” OSHA explains in the fact sheet. “During inhalation, much of the potentially contaminated air can pass through gaps between the face and the surgical mask and not be pulled through the filter material of the mask.”

In other words, wearing a face mask probably isn’t actually doing much to prevent you from contracting coronavirus — which, it’s worth mentioning, remains unlikely in the United States anyway, where there have only been 11 confirmed cases so far.

Meanwhile, as mounting coronavirus hysteria drives more and more people to buy out their local CVS’s supply of surgical masks, the much smaller segment of the population that actually stands to benefit from these masks — that is, health professionals — are left increasingly vulnerable as supplies dwindle. As the New York Times reported, studies conducted during the 2003 SARS outbreak and during the annual flu season found that face masks actually are effective at protecting workers who have regular, direct contact with infected patients.

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Unfortunately, that won’t stop the masses from rushing out to stock up on the season’s trendiest accessory, which is currently having a moment on Instagram, as influencers around the world sport masks in sexy snaps posted with the hashtag #coronavirus. If things keep trending in this direction, we can expect Yandy to drop a Sexy Coronavirus costume by summer — assuming there are any masks left.

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