[AT] AT Digest, Vol 31, Issue 4

[STEVE ALLEN]

Gentlemen, while it is true that wearing a mask will stop some droplets exhaled by others from going directly into your lungs by trapping them in the fabric, that barrier is no protection.  Those droplets remain charged with the virus, and their moisture will mix with the moisture of your own breath, keeping the virus soup in close proximity to your face.  The skin cells of the face are equipped with receptors which are vulnerable to the virus on the mask on your skin.  You do not have to breathe the virus in:  in can enter through the skin.  The masks can actually increase the exposure many times over by trapping the virus right there on your face.

I urge you to not consider a mask you are wearing to be any protection at all for yourself.  It affords others some protection from you but you no protection at all from them.

The "original" Steve Allen