Are gaiters at least partially effective at blocking aerosols?

Submitted by Lokarin t3_1061svn in askscience

I've been recommending gaiters to everyone since it's winter and since my gaiter has a vinyl skin on it there's no way moisture is getting in...

But -some guy- on reddit told me that gaiters are "worse than nothing" when it comes to viral protection... but they didn't provide a source

This is important cuz I don't wanna recommend them if they don't help (well, for virus, cuz they do help for the cold... it got to -52c with wind chill) a couple weeks ago

96

Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

argenbar t1_j3f7lne wrote

This study found neck gaiters were about 47% effective at source control (stopping you making someone else sick). While they didn't look at it, if it was well sealed around the nose it would probably be similarly effective for personal protection. A sealed n95 is going to be 95%+ effective, and wearing no mask at all will be 0% effective. So a neck gaiter is going to better than nothing, but it's not a substitute for a n95 (or even a surgical mask) in risky situations e.g. close quarters, poorly ventilated spaces (busses, bathrooms) etc. Outside, ventilation is much much better, so it probably doesn't matter as much what you wear.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9345365/

113

Lokarin OP t1_j3fffxv wrote

Neat.

I notice most the articles are about thin spandex gaiters, which I can imagine doesn't block much; I had thick wooly gaiters in mind (the winter kind)

...

Something else of note, I found it a lot easier to wear a mask under a gaiter than just wearing the mask... the mask would always slide around.

12

xanthraxoid t1_j3hfj60 wrote

It's really important to remember that any face covering (gaiter, N95 mask, whatever) will only filter air that goes through it - any air that goes around it is essentially unfiltered, so a vinyl coating that makes it mostly non-porous would make it pretty useless...

19

pspahn t1_j3fg2nq wrote

I also recall reading a study about adding a simple solution of table salt and water to fabrics that improves effectiveness. Not sure if I'll be able to find it before someone else.

−7

xanthraxoid t1_j3hflwd wrote

> it would probably be similarly effective for personal protection.

Unlikely. The virus containing moisture particles are pretty large and easy to catch when you exhale them, but they rapidly dry out and become very small - small enough to make catching them much harder.

I would assume that a neck gaiter would be very much like a face mask on that front, though obviously much less effective because of not being designed / tested for the purpose.

More info here - I recommend having sci-hub to hand, too.

8

CryptographerSmall45 t1_j3f8e64 wrote

No, they aren't "worse than nothing." They just got that reputation based on misinterpreted results of one study that got a lot of press (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-those-bogus-reports-on-ineffective-neck-gaiters-got-started/). That said, any kind of cloth face covering isn't really recommended anymore for the prevention of COVID-19. That was back when it was believed to be primarily spread through respiratory droplets. Once they determined it could be spread through aerosols (and indeed that the later more contagious variants are like primarily spread via aerosol transmission), the recommendation shifted away from cloth face covering of any kinds and to surgical and N95 masks.

76

Lokarin OP t1_j3fe1jr wrote

> The researchers set up a green laser beam in a dark room. A masked subject was then asked to speak so that the droplets from the speaker’s mouth showed up in the green beam.

Neat. My test method was to point-blank spray windex on one side and see if it's dry on the other

−17

Cannablitzed t1_j3f8zvg wrote

-some guy- is a tool. Any layers of fabric will be better than nothing at inhibiting a virus from getting to your airway, even if the fabric is only catching .0001% of particulates. Where it becomes iffy (worse than nothing) is when that fabric is a) not being sterilized often enough or b) if one side of said fabric (like the vinyl side) is holding a large viral/bacterial load from the external environment, and is then put over ones airway or c) said fabric is infused with bacteria/fungus/viruses from the wearers own moist exhalations/sweaty skin. See point a. Most infectious bugs prefer warm, moist environments so air your neckwear out often, wash it frequently and in a pinch, spray it with Lysol.

Reality is, nobody is seriously wearing a gaiter for viral protection, there are medical grade masks for that. Feel free to continue recommending gaiters as a deterrent to frostbite, and suggest washing them often.

28

teh_maxh t1_j3fxt55 wrote

A gaiter can also be "worse than nothing" if you use it as an excuse to act like you have significant protection.

22

FastFourierTerraform t1_j3h9qgl wrote

The CDC itself at one point proclaimed that masks were ineffective and possibly even counterproductive, so it's not just "some guy." The logic there was that cloth masks do very very little to stop viral aerosols, and on top of that, long durations of wearing them turn them into a warm, moist cover over your face, an environment that viruses love. Plus, unless you regularly clean them, the masks themselves turn into disgusting microbiomes.

Then the idea was that wearing any mask prevents you from spreading droplets, and so it was a good idea.

But covid is, of course, primarily spread through aerosols, which are going to essentially ignore anything below an N95+

There are arguments to be had about the dispersion of aerosols when the wearer is/isn't wearing a mask, but at the end of the day the fact that we don't asphyxiate on our own CO2 means that the air and aerosols are circulating pretty effectively, regardless of wearing masks.

As far as protecting yourself goes, cloth masks aren't going to do anything significant for you.

But, of course, the entire topic is so highly politicized now that you're unlikely to get an unbiased answer from anyone

−2