Mask Vs. No Mask: Experiment Shows How Important It Is to Wear Masks to Stop the Coronavirus
The debate over whether to wear a mask continues, as more states see a surge in Coronavirus infections. But a new experiment, done by researcher Rich Davis shows how important it is to wear a mask. Davis used agar cultures, to show us the effects. He tweeted that he had sung, sneezed, talked, and coughed into a Petri dish with, and then without a mask. Davis shared a picture – and it was downright scary.
Davis set up several Petri dishes, which showed how much bacteria spread, with and without a mask, when a sneeze, conversation, singing a song, or cough happened. He then did the experiment again at a distance. The number of bacteria represented in the Petri dishes with no mask was enormous, compared to the dishes created with a mask. The need for a mask is, pardon the pun, “clear.”
Davis’ experiment was retweeted over 166,000 times and was “liked” over 280,000 times.
[A Petri dish (alternatively known as a Petri plate or cell-culture dish) is a shallow transparent lidded dish, which biologists use to culture cells, such as bacteria, fungi or small mosses. It is the most common type of culture plate. ]