> Or maybe you believe that mask mandates don't help much since the mask pores are 5k times larger than the size of this airborne (not aerosel) virus.
The COVID virus is about 0.1 µm.
The pores in a 3-layer surgical mask are about 50 µm to 500 µm in the first and third layer averaging around 100 µm, and 12 µm to 30 µm in the middle layer averaging around 13 µm.
For a 3-layer N95 mask, it is 50 µm to 200 µm first layer averaging about 75 µm, 40 µm to 120 µm averaging 50 µm for the third layer, and 10 µm to 20 µm averaging 11 µm for the middle layer.
If the only mechanism by which filtering of air worked was to catch particles that were too big to pass through the pores, then the virus would indeed go right through.
However, that is not the only mechanism. Here's a short article from a filter company explaining the different mechanisms [1]. It is quite counterintuitive--as particle size goes down below the pore size efficiency starts to drop as you would intuitively expect but only for a bit and then as particle size continues to go down efficiency rises.
The COVID virus is about 0.1 µm.
The pores in a 3-layer surgical mask are about 50 µm to 500 µm in the first and third layer averaging around 100 µm, and 12 µm to 30 µm in the middle layer averaging around 13 µm.
For a 3-layer N95 mask, it is 50 µm to 200 µm first layer averaging about 75 µm, 40 µm to 120 µm averaging 50 µm for the third layer, and 10 µm to 20 µm averaging 11 µm for the middle layer.
If the only mechanism by which filtering of air worked was to catch particles that were too big to pass through the pores, then the virus would indeed go right through.
However, that is not the only mechanism. Here's a short article from a filter company explaining the different mechanisms [1]. It is quite counterintuitive--as particle size goes down below the pore size efficiency starts to drop as you would intuitively expect but only for a bit and then as particle size continues to go down efficiency rises.
[1] http://donaldsonaerospace-defense.com/library/files/document...