Face masks alone aren’t a good way to keep from getting sick
Mask-wearing is more common in some parts of Asia for a variety of cultural reasons (Macau Photo Agency/)No one wants to get sick. During pandemics—or even just normal flu season—that desire to avoid the ill and infirm shoots up, and we start taking extra precautions. But if you do one thing this winter to keep yourself from catching a virus, don’t let it be wearing a face mask.It’s not so much that face masks are terrible. In theory, they could work to prevent sprays of virus-laden fluid from entering your nose and mouth. But in practice, neither the standard surgical variety nor the heavier duty N95 respirator masks do much to keep bugs from spreading person-to-person. Even in hospital settings, the few studies on the topic find that the N95 respirators weren’t any better than the common surgical ones at preventing the spread of respiratory illnesses.There haven’t been many more...