Why Masks Protect Its Wearer Too: The Virus Load Concept
Do masks only protect others? No, it also prevents you from inhaling too many viruses.
We have heard the same message over and over again. Wear masks to protect others. In case one is a carrier, the mask prevents too much spreading of virus particles into the air. But have we forgotten that the reverse is true as well — that masks prevent one from inhaling too many virus particles?
Masks lower the inhaled virus load
Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at the University of California and director of the UCSF Gladstone Center for AIDS Research, and two other fellow professors published a perspective paper in the Journal of General Internal Medicine on 31 July. The title reads, “Masks Do More Than Protect Others During COVID-19: Reducing the Inoculum of SARS-CoV-2 to Protect the Wearer.”
“However, the second theory — that reducing the inoculum of the virus to which a mask-wearer is exposed will result in milder disease — has received less attention…”
As the title indicates, the professors argued that masks benefit all, including the wearer. The reason has to do…
