Homemade cloth masks can successfully block coronavirus particles, study shows

Homemade cloth masks.
(Image credit: VIRGINIE LEFOUR/BELGA/AFP via Getty Images)

If you're going to make your own coronavirus mask, you should probably use cotton, Gizmodo reports.

A new study published last week in ACS Nano involving researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Smithsonian Institution's Conservation Institute eased some concerns that nothing but medical-grade masks can filter coronavirus particles. While N95 masks are still clearly the most effective, cloth masks can help, the study found.

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Layering, while perhaps not incredibly enticing on a comfort level, seems to be key for homemade masks, as well. The best single-layer cotton blocked about 20 percent of the coronavirus-sized particles used in the study, which is useful, but a far cry from the 95 percent filtered by N95 masks.

All told, homemade masks won't provide complete protection, but they appear to at least mitigate the chance of being infected, a nice bonus to the fact they can also help prevent the wearer from spreading the virus to others. Read more at Gizmodo.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.