Osterholm: Double Masking Could Cause More Air To Leak at the Sides and Is More Harmful

RUSH EXCERPT:

OSTERHOLM: “When we talk about double masking, what we’re really talking about is trying to prevent the virus of being excreted by me into the air or me inhaling the virus from someone else in the air. It’s both a function of face fit and face filtration. Think about your swim goggles. When is any of them leak at the lenses? They leak at the fit. What we or concerned about many of these cloth face coverings, if you add another mask, you may make it tougher for the air to move through the two-cloth area. At that point it causes more air to actually leak around the sides which actually enhances your ability to get infected. I’m not saying that some couldn’t be used in a better way. At the same time, there are many that may do more harm. Let me say right now one thing that’s really to me very important, we see up to 25% of people who wear it under their nose.”