But Still Insist They Protect Against Coronavirus Which Is Even Smaller Than Wildfire Particulate?
On the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, CDC advises “Cloth masks will not protect you from wildfire smoke.“
“They do not catch small, harmful particles in smoke that can harm your health.
Although N95 respirators do provide protection from wildfire smoke, they might be in short supply as frontline healthcare workers use them during the pandemic.”
CDC
As noted in the tweet below, the CDC is getting lots of criticism and bad press for the statement that cloth masks”do not catch small, harmful particles” part of their announcement. As pointed out in Red State, a quick google search will tell you that Coronavirus particles are .12 microns in size (or up to 1.2 microns) and the harmful particles in smoke are .4 to .7 microns.
Cororonvirus – at .12 microns in size – “is about a quarter the size of the smoke and fire debris particulate.” So if the CDC says that cloth masks won’t filter out the harmful and larger smoke particles, why do they suggest that a cloth mask is effective in filtering out the much smaller (.12 microns) coronavirus? The frequent refrain heard on social media is “what does it hurt you to wear a mask, if it might help…. but is that actually science?
