WHO does not recommend wearing medical masks always and everywhere: according to the organization, it is enough for a healthy person to wear a mask if he comes into contact with a sick person. But the patient needs to be worn to protect others from infection. But the insidiousness of the coronavirus is that the course of the disease can be asymptomatic. That is, you will not even know that you are infected or that you are in contact with an infected person – outwardly, he is completely healthy. Therefore, sadly enough, everyone needs masks. Especially in the store – this has been very convincingly proved by Finnish scientists.
Imagine: you are standing in front of a shelf in a supermarket, and suddenly someone sneezes in the next row. What will you do? Most likely, nothing, because the person is far away from you, you are separated by shelves of groceries. And in vain. In such a situation, it is worth jumping back as far as possible, pulling the mask over your face more tightly. Experts from Aalto University, Finnish Meteorological Institute, VTT Technical Research Center of Finland and University of Helsinki how particles spread in the air that are thrown into the air when a person sneezes or coughs without even covering his mouth with his palm, let alone a mask. And it turned out that the “emission” of potentially infected microparticles spreads for several meters around and hangs like an ugly cloud. The cloud gradually dissipates, but not immediately.
“A person infected with coronavirus can cough and leave. But after it, microparticles carrying the virus will remain in the air. These particles can be inhaled by someone else, who will come to the same place after a few minutes, ”explains Professor Ville Vuorinen from Aalto University.