Putting tights over a face mask improves its fit and filtration properties, a study from Cambridge University into ‘hacks’ for improving the effectiveness of face masks has found. Something to include in the next mandate, then. The Mail has the story.
As part of a new study, Cambridge University experts reviewed a variety of DIY hacks people have used to make masks fit better, including using rubber bands or tape.
Curiously, they found the most effective tactic was to wrap pantyhose around the bottom half of the face – on top of a mask.
This, the scientists said, could reduce the amount of viral particles by up to seven times more than a loose mask on its own, by sealing the gaps around the nose and mouth.
But recognising the social and physical implications of wearing tights on your face in public, they noted it was “unlikely to be tolerated for extended periods of time”.
The jury is still out on how effective mask-wearing is at reducing Covid infections at a population level, with conflicting results from both sides. Most scientists agree that they at least make a small contribution.
Tight-fitting medical grade masks, such as KN95s, are exceptional at blocking out the virus but they are often described as uncomfortable and are harder to acquire.
The most common surgical or cloth masks are far less resistant.
The researchers measured how well the masks fit by monitoring the filtration efficiency and calculating a ‘fit factor’ score. Surgical masks performed better if worn in combination with tights (pantyhose) (7.2) or if the gaps were sealed using cloth tape (4.8). However, comfort was, not surprisingly, an issue.
The researchers noted many of the hacks, including the most effective ones, were uncomfortable.
Rubber banks put pressure on the ears and face and reduced blood circulation to the ears for some people.
Meanwhile, pantyhose gave volunteers “high levels of discomfort”, caused problems speaking and sometimes covered the participants’ eyes during the exercises.
And while fabric tape was comfortable to wear, it was uncomfortable to remove and the researchers noted sweat or movement over time could dislodge the tape.
Worth reading in full, for a laugh.
Stop Press: Geoff Shullenberger in UnHerd has an excellent piece entitled “Were masks a waste of time?” looking at the evidence and asking why the ‘experts’ abandoned the established scientific view on masks – “there was no evidence that face masks are effective in reducing transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza,” wrote the WHO in 2019 – and sacrificed their own credibility in the process.
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Brilliant! Thank you.
A bit of vindication and reassurance to all of those, us, who, however endowed with self confidence, must have, at times (I know that I did) wondered, shocked, whether they really were the selfish batty deluded and dangerous fanatics that virtually the entire country made us out to be (and kind of still do in so many cases).
All best wishes to the Trump campaign. It offers the best chance of at least some semblance of reality and reckoning to arrive at the highest level in the United States of America and so, perhaps, to spread elsewhere.
For once I am in complete agreement:)
Aargh. The Shock!
Drumpf is the AntiChrist.
Can’t you bring yourself to name people you don’t like properly. It seems a childish. I should know, I used to do it myself but I think I have grown up now.
You are showing your ignorance of your hero.
“Drumpf” is the original family name of the AntiChrist’s German Jewish ancestors, who changed it to “Trump” when they emigrated to America. Many immigrants did this, especially the Jewish ones.
It is not his name now and hasn’t been for how many generations? The ‘Antichrist’? You are showing that you are an hysterical, hyperbole spouting fool. Get a grip!
trumps family is from scotland
On his mother’s side yes, but on his father’s side from Germany.
Excellent article; thanks
I still don’t understand why Zuckerberg did that astonishing thing, out of the blue.
Maybe, like Elon Musk, he has had an actual change of heart, and soul?
But since Musk supports Drumpf the AntiChrist, his change of heart cannot be real.
Maybe Zuckerberg’s is? I’d like to think so, but who knows what games the Illuminati play?
Thanks to Jeffrey Tucker for pointing out the sheer enormity of Zuckerberg’s telling the truth to the people.
Isn’t that what Jeffrey Tucker is saying in the article? Zuckerberg is, from his digitally informed position, presumably genuinely concerned that the mood music might well have changed by the end of the year, and is getting his excuses in early..
Have just rewatched Adam Curtis’s Century of the Self (hidden in plain sight on BBC iPlayer of all places!), 22 years after it was released and even more relevant now than then.
Edward Bernays was the most important person of the 20th Century that most of us had never heard of.
Whatever your view of Trump, he would be a better choice than Harris for president.
Somehow the US needs to get back to being a meritocracy or the entire planet is lost.
Drumpf is the AntiChrist, as his fawning admirers will discover.
You would be less tiresome if you found a pulpit in some fanatical Christian fringe sect somewhere? There you can fulminate and froth to your hearts content.
“on Woodstock and the 1969 flu”….If that article was also on Sp!ked (remember them) then I remember reading it and mentioned it a few times on various platforms.
Because he can see what people are saying, can analyse it, and knows better than any Polling company the likelihood Trump will win.
i sure hope so! a nd with rfk jr bobby kennedy in the white house too theres hope again!
I think it’s called “Getting your excuses in early.”
In this case “A big boy made me do it.”
Why?
For exactly the same reason Harry wants to return to the UK.
Both men, along with the whole rotten establishment American blob know Trump wins in November.
Between now and then, you’ll witness a variety of rats of all shapes and sizes leaving the ship.
Why? Could it be because it looks like Trump might be the White House next January?
“People like me had come to believe that average people were simply cowards or stupid not to object. Now we know that this might not have been true at all! The people who objected were simply silenced.”
Indeed. I said 2-3 years ago that one of the most horrible aspects of this most horrible period of human existence was the success the authorities enjoyed making folks like us believe we were lone voices.
Having said that, I know I was the only person in a 200-strong crowd queueing obediently and silently in a snake line to the IKEA checkouts who wasn’t wearing a face nappy. I was alone then, and that was not some constructed reality on social media… Nor was the very threatening red-faced and sweaty man, shouting at me from behind his face nappy, “SOMEONE HASN’T BEEN PAYING ATTENTION!”
To whom I responded, quietly, and while casting my arm over the massed, silent, calm members of the IKEA Congregation… “Sir, is this really what you think a pandemic would look like?”
What a great comeback – how did he react?
What a rat Zuckerberg is. Think of all those people who spoke up and suffered for it. And now I’m going to forward the article to those of my friends who rolled their eyes when I ” want down a rabbit hole”. Thank you Toby Young for Lockdown Sceptic
What about Nick Clegg ?