Infectious disease expert says wet masks don’t work

Queenslanders aren’t covering up enough to protect themselves against the raging Omicron virus, an infectious disease expert warns.

Queenslanders are ignoring an important tactic to protect themselves against the raging Omicron virus, an Australian infectious disease expert and adviser to the World Health Organisation warns.

People should be looking to protect their eyes with glasses as they have receptor or entry sites for the highly transmissible virus.

“If you’re indoors in a shop and somebody has breathed out through their nose because they’re not wearing their mask over their nose or not wearing a mask over their mouth then it could get into your eyes, so it would be great if people protected their eyes when they were indoors in a shopping mall,”

Professor Mary-Louise McLaws is a Professor Epidemiology of Hospital Infection and Infectious Diseases Control at the University of New South Wales and a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Health Emergencies Program Experts Advisory Panel for Infection Prevention and Control Preparedness, Readiness and Response to Covid said.

Professor Mary-Louise McLaws. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

As the state’s Covid cases soar the expert says many people are not wearing an efficient mask and warns if the mask gets wet in the humid weather they won’t work, so carry a spare

“As a WHO member of the Infection Prevention and Control group for COVID-19, the cloth masks have to have three layers. The cloth masks have to follow the WHO cloth agreement and if they don’t, they won’t protect the wearer,” she said.

“Following those guidelines with a cloth mask prevents people from breathing out or in the virus through the three materials”

Professor McLaws advises if people are buying a cloth mask from a shop they must check if it has two outer layers by using their fingers to see if there’s an independent inner layer, and an outer layer.

“Try to pull each layer apart and that will let them know if there are two outer layers and one inner layer. If they can’t do that, then it should be telling them there’s one single layer, and one single layer is not enough. Two layers are not enough without a middle third layer to prevent anything that might get through the outer layer. The middle layer is supposed to be a bit like the inner layer of a medical mask that is charged [with static electricity],” she said.

Professor McLaws suggests Queenslanders should be covering their eyes to help stop the spread of Omicron. Picture: Richard Walker

If it is a three-layered mask, one of the ways of getting that inner layer to be charged to prevent a particle from coming through that middle layer is to gently rub the mask between your fingers and that should increase the charge of the middle layer.

If there’s just one layer, then that single layer cloth mask can get wet very quickly and once it’s wet then anything can get through very, very easily.”