Pretend everyone you see is smoking. Now try to avoid breathing their exhaled “smoke.”
The Importance of Masks
“When it comes to COVID-19, the evidence overwhelmingly supports aerosol transmission, and there are no strong arguments against it.
Aerosols...act like smoke: after being expelled, they...disperse throughout the air, getting diluted by air currents, and being inhaled by others present in the same space.”
from
Time
“[W]hether safe distances are maintained, if...six people spend four hours together talking loudly, without wearing a face mask in a room with no ventilation, five will become infected....
If face masks are worn, four people are at risk of infection. Masks alone will not prevent infection if the exposure is prolonged.
The risk of infection drops to below one when the group uses face masks, shortens the length of the gathering by half and ventilates the space used.”
text & all illustrations from
El Pais