We all know it’s important to wear masks to stop the spread of COVID-19. But, a new study by the National Institutes of Health found that masks might guard against COVID-19 in another way. It turns out that the humidity created inside the mask when we exhale can help protect us against COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases.
Researchers suspect that it is the high level of humidity that is protecting mask wearers.
When you exhale, the moisture in your breath increases the humidity of the air trapped between your mask and face. So, when you inhale, the air you breathe is more humid than it would be without a mask. This is important because, as Adriaan Bax, the lead researcher explains, “High levels of humidity have been shown to mitigate severity of the flu, and it may be applicable to severity of COVID-19 through a similar mechanism.”
People who wear masks have lower rates of disease.
The high humidity in the lungs is believed to help protect against respiratory viruses. One of the ways that the lungs defend themselves against disease is to create and remove mucus. The mucus captures the harmful particles and your system can expel them when it expels the mucus. The other way your body fights viruses is by producing a special protein called interferons. Interferons can fight viruses, but both of these systems work better in humid conditions.
Researchers measured the amount of humidity different types of masks captured.
In the experiment, participants breathed into a box without a mask so all of the moisture from their breath went into the box. They then repeated that when wearing different types of masks. The moisture released into the box decreased when a mask was worn, and the amount by which the moisture decreased told the researchers how much humidity was captured inside the mask.
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The study did not suggest which mask is best.
But, you might want to start thinking about which of your masks help you breathe humid air. Bax said, “The increased level of humidity is something most mask-wearers probably felt without being able to recognize, and without realizing that this humidity might actually be good for them.”
This study reinforces how important mask usage is.
“Even as more people nationwide begin to get vaccinated, we must remain vigilant about doing our part to prevent the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19,” said Griffin P. Rodgers, who is the director of NIDDK.
“This research supports the importance of mask-wearing as a simple, yet effective, way to protect the people around us and to protect ourselves from respiratory infection, especially during these winter months when susceptibility to these viruses increases.”
