According to a study published in the journal Science Advances , Martin Fischer, Eric Westman and the team corroborated that face masks are effective in reducing the expulsion of droplets while talking, sneezing, or coughing, Phys.org reported.
Fisher, the lead researcher in the team said: “We confirmed that when people speak, small droplets get expelled, so the disease can be spread by talking, without coughing or sneezing.” He added: “We could also see that some face coverings performed much better than others in blocking expelled particles.”
The researchers further mentioned in their report that the most effective way to cover face is to use N95 masks without valves — the hospital-grade coverings that are used by front-line healthcare workers. They suggested that surgical or polypropylene masks also performed well.
"This was just a demonstration — more work is required to investigate variations in masks, speakers, and how people wear them — but it demonstrates that this sort of test could easily be conducted by businesses and others that are providing masks to their employees or patrons," Fischer noted further.
"Wearing a mask is a simple and easy way to reduce the spread of Covid-19," Westman said.
"About half of infections are from people who don't show symptoms, and often don't know they're infected. They can unknowingly spread the virus when they cough, sneeze and just talk. If everyone wore a mask, we could stop up to 99 per cent of these droplets before they reach someone else," Westman added. “In the absence of a vaccine or antiviral medicine, it's the one proven way to protect others as well as yourself,” he further mentioned.
Westman and Fischer maintained that it is imperative that businesses who are engaged in supplying masks to the public and employees should have proper information about the products they're providing to assure the best protection possible, Phys.org report further added.