Better masks needed
Last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic had just started, the Ministry of Economic Affairs quickly organized a mask taskforce to ensure that there were enough masks for all Taiwanese, so that we could protect ourselves from the virus.
This year, when the situation in Taiwan took a turn for the worse, the nation was placed on a level 3 pandemic alert for three months. Just as the number of cases was falling and things looked more hopeful, a cluster of infections in a kindergarten was reported.
This was not the first cluster in a kindergarten, but the government has not required vaccines for children, and so masks were the only line of defense available to the kids and those who came into contact with them.
The Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is so virulent that masks offer little protection against infection if there is even the slightest gap, as caused by an improper fit of the mask.
Having solved the problem of short supply of masks, the government now has to address the issue of making sure people are wearing them properly.
University professors and clinicians can tell you that the virus spreads via aerosol transmission.
On Facebook, Huang Hsuan (黃軒), a specialist in intensive care, said that if there is a gap equivalent to 1 percent of the active surface area of the mask, its ability to filter out the virus is reduced to 70 percent. If the gap is increased to 2 percent of the surface area, then the mask’s ability to filter out particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers falls to only 33 percent.
Consequently, the integrity of the fit of the mask is crucial to masks’ ability to protect against inhalation of SARS-CoV-2, but the geometry of each individual’s face — the shape of the face, the height of the nose bridge, the shape of the cheeks and the way the mouth moves — can create differences in the way the mask comes into contact with the skin, and therefore can vary the fit and the size of the gap.
Therein lies the challenge of trying to ensure that masks fit properly.
Fortunately, research into this issue has already shown results, with National Sun Yat-sen University having developed plastic nose bridge strips that can fill in the gaps in the mask.
The Ministry of Education should put the results of research from the state-funded university to good use and commandeer the ministry’s mask taskforce to upgrade the masks produced in Taiwan to make them fit to different face shapes and prevent gaps.
Niu Ming
Taipei
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