Face coverings
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Neck gaiters as face-cover during the COVID-19 pandemic are ineffective and could even spread the virus further than not wearing a covering at all, according to Duke University researchers.

The new study found during their testing that neck gaiters are "worse than nothing."

Isaac Henrion, the study's co-author, said that the neck gaiter that they tested did essentially nothing and seemed to appear to make large droplets into small droplets.

Henrion is also a coordinator of Cover Durham, aiming to distribute tens of thousands of masks to COVID-19 vulnerable people.

The neck gaiter is a circular piece of fabric that sits around a person's neck, pulled to cover their mouth and nose.

The issue with the face covering is not the sign but the material that it is made from.

The study tested 14 different face masks, which include bandanas, knitted, valved N95, fitted N95, cotton, and fleece masks. Each of these tested ten times.

Henrion said that the study tested a neck gaiter made of a thin, stretchy polyester. He added that instead of stopping droplets from coming into the air, the fabric seems to turn large droplets into small ones, which is known as aerosols.

Aerosols

Aerosols are a type of droplet that is made when people cough, sneeze or talk. However, these do not fall to the ground the same way large, visible droplets do.

Henrion said that aerosol's path is like a paper airplane flying the air, getting caught on currents.

"They're really tiny; they're really invisible, they're buoyant, they don't fall to the ground, gravity doesn't act on them," Kimberly Prather, distinguished chair in atmospheric chemistry at UC San Diego and an expert on aerosols, was quoted in a report.

Prather added that when aerosols are released by someone infected, do not know it, and talk in the room; they can build up in a room over time. She said that these could be inhaled in the room and become infected.

Prather said that if you inhale tiny aerosols, these go deep into your lungs and can bypass your immune system, which is why some cases do not show any symptoms at first.

She added that the virus takes off, and you will not know about for five days until it grows in your upper respiratory tract. This will then trigger your immune system, and symptoms will show.

Henrion said aerosols are considered a major source of transmission, especially if you are in crowded places with poor ventilation systems.

The possibility of aerosols carrying coronavirus is still being researched, but the study shows they play a role.

Duke's research looked at the droplet production while talking. The research found that more than half of the people infected with COVID-19 are asymptomatic.

Henrion said that talking is the way that asymptomatic transmission happens.

Should You Ditch It?

Some experts say that droplet number does not necessarily equate to the risk of transmission.

Monica Gandhi, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, said that the best way to do that would be to take coronavirus and exposed individuals to it wearing different masks.

However, Gandhi said that, but because they cannot do that for obvious ethical reasons, everything else is an approximation.

Measuring droplets can be reasonable, but it does not reflect how much the risk of transmission is cut for both wearers to others, and others the wearer, Gandhi said.

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