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.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
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.