Do masks work as source control?
This will be the extremely rare post where I do not reference any data at all, but rather ask you to humor me in a thought experiment. Forgive the crude nature of this.
Question: If masks work as source control, how is it possible that we smell flatulence? Aren’t the sources, generally speaking, double masked?
***Update: Before I’m “fact-checked”, this was intended to be humorous. A reader who is more educated on molecule size, David Watson, points out in the comments “Smells are the result of molecules acting on sensors in the nose, sending signals to the brain that are interpreted as odors. In the case of odorous flatulence, the functional molecule is hydrogen sulfide, which has a diameter about a third of a nanometer. Sars virus is couple hundred nm, so it's less transmissable than hydrogen sulfide molecules, though still much smaller than mask fabric”. Thanks David. It would be theoretically possible that clothing does not stop flatulence, while masks stop COVID. I don’t believe that to be true, but it would not inherently be contradictory.
Actually not a good comparison, but a great metaphor. Smells are the result of molecules acting on sensors in the nose, sending signals to the brain that are interpreted as odors. In the case of odorous flatulence, the functional molecule is hydrogen sulfide, which has a diameter about a third of a nanometer. Sars virus is couple hundred nm, so it's less transmissable than hydrogen sulfide molecules, though still much smaller than mask fabric, which is why MASKS DONT WORK. A mask that blocks particles that size would also block oxygen, so would only be effective couple minutes, after which masking is moot.
A closer, and less offensive, comparison was posted on tube in 2020, since banned, showing smoke exhaled while wearing a variety of commercial masks. All of them prodigiously leaked smoke particles, which are more similar size to virus.
Ok, another analogy. Would anyone use a condom made from a surgical mask? Sperm cells are much bigger than viruses, but I doubt anyone would trust mask material for contraception or safe sex.