Face masks are part of our new reality in the COVID-19 pandemic. While most of us aren’t used to wearing them every day, we’ve had to adjust to our new accessories in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.
Since most of us are new to this, there are bound to be some mistakes in how we approach wearing and handling our masks. One of the biggest mistakes people are making is not wearing the mask properly. A lot of people are wearing the mask just below their nose, which renders the mask ineffective.
As Dr. Henry Raymond and Dr. Amisha Malhotra told NJ.com, a face mask must always cover your nose and mouth. “A mask is not effective if it is worn below the nose, because respiratory droplets come from sneezing as well as coughing,” they said.
This is why it's so important to cover your nose with your face mask
The doctors continued, “Nasal secretions can contain the coronavirus in an infected person, and covering the nose can help prevent transmission since the virus can infect an individual by entry through the nasal passages. This means that if you sneeze into the open air, you can put another person at risk of being exposed to your germs. Moreover, wearing a mask over your nose not only helps others from you potentially transmitting the coronavirus, but it decreases the risk of you — the mask-wearer — from contracting it as well.”
A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and published in Cell highlighted the importance of covering your nose. Their findings suggest that COVID-19 typically roots itself in the nasal cavity first, before spreading to the lungs. Dr. Richard Boucher, a co-senior author on the study, said in a statement (via Best Life) that it’s even more important to wear a face mask properly “if the nose is the dominant initial site from which lung infections are seeded.”
While some people worry that covering their nose with a face mask will lower oxygen levels, there is no truth to this fear.
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