Why can I wear N95 masks during the new coronavirus epidemic?

The spread of the new coronavirus requires a host vector. Once it leaves the body of the host (such as animals, humans), it will die in a short time, but the virus can be spread through contact (such as hand contamination), droplets, etc., including coughing, speech, the droplets produced when sneezing are the main carrier of transmission. If a new coronavirus carrier sneezes in a confined space (such as a train or airplane, etc.), the dropped droplets are easily inhaled by another person and may be infected. Therefore, it is necessary to wear a mask for protection.

Because the virus and its transmission medium (droplets) also exist in the form of particles, and the diameter of the particles is relatively small, the N95 mask filtering mechanism is to filter these fine particles through the high-performance filter material in the mask. The efficiency test method uniformly uses particles with an aerodynamic diameter of 0.3 microns, which is the most difficult to filter among the diameters of particles with a known normal distribution. At the same time, N95 masks also have strict requirements for their tightness. Therefore, the correct wearing of N95 masks can reduce the exposure to pathogenic microorganisms in the air and effectively prevent viruses from entering the human body from the respiratory tract. However, the wearer should also pay attention to the prevention of hands and eyes, so as not to be infected by other means.