A study coming out of the National Institutes of Health suggests that the humidity of your exhaled breath inside a mask may be help to lower disease severity when you are infected with COVID-19.
Researchers tested four different types of masks and found that thick cotton masks had the largest increase in humidity. They also looked at whether air temperature made a difference in the amount of humidity and found that a low temperature of 7 degrees Celsius (44.6 Fahrenheit) raised humidity levels the most.
Although it may sound gross to have a wet mask, Adriaan Bax, Ph.D., the NIH study’s lead author, said “the resulting hydration of the respiratory tract could be responsible for the documented finding that links lower COVID-19 disease severity to wearing a mask.”
SOURCE: Healthing.ca February 16, 2021