Teaching the General Public How To Test and Maintain Readily Available Face Masks

I hope that research like this will enable people to make informed decisions about distancing and mask-wearing

– Dr. Scott Sanders

At a Glance

When the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) began encouraging everyone to wear masks to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, many people were unprepared. Some individuals didn’t know how to properly wear a mask while others weren’t able to obtain one. However, evidence continued to mount that proper use of masks was critical to managing COVID-19. Through instructional videos, this project focused on teaching Wisconsinites how to evaluate and properly use the masks that are readily available to them to help protect people from COVID-19.

The grant team was successful in developing a mask solution that, if widely adopted, would help lessen the impact of COVID-19. They found that mask fit was crucial for filtering aerosol, which are smaller respiratory droplets, both for inhalation and exhalation. The team created three informational videos focused on the importance of mask fit, how to improve mask fit, and how to choose the right mask. The videos were showcased by several news outlets alongside interviews with the principal investigator; the video Can Your Mask Stop a Cough? – Mask Study using a Laser has over 30,000 views on YouTube as of June 2021.

The Challenge

After the CDC encouraged everyone to wear masks in public to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, it was clear that most people were not prepared. Many people didn’t have masks or couldn’t obtain them, and if they did, they didn’t know how to assess whether the mask was working. Thus, additional efforts were needed to educate the general public on mask wearing.

Project Goals

The overarching goal of this project was to teach the public in Wisconsin how to test a mask after they put it on their face by disseminating this critical information through instructional videos. More specifically, the grant team sought to teach people how to get a sense as to how well the mask works when on their face. A secondary goal of this project was to teach the public how to maintain and safely reuse their masks.

Results

The grant team learned early on that mask fit was very important for filtering aerosols, both for inhalation and exhalation. They demonstrated the importance of fit in a video featuring a fog-breathing manikin, released in late June 2020. The video was showcased by several news outlets alongside interviews with the principal investigator and has over 30,000 views on YouTube as of June 2021. The team learned how to improve mask fit using readily available materials like pipe cleaners, and produced videos explaining how to make the fitter through video demonstration. They produced a second manikin demonstration video in late August 2020 that was also showcased by several news outlets.

In late August 2020, the grant team helped to design the Badger Seal. The Badger Seal did not gain popularity as rapidly as hoped in light of the tremendous mask performance benefits it offers, but it continued to slowly gain popularity throughout the UW–Madison campus, the state of Wisconsin, and beyond. The CDC endorsed the Badger Seal in February 2021 and focused on using mask fitters to improve how the mask protects the wearer. The CDC’s recommendations evolved out of the grant team’s research and demonstration of how small particles from breathing or sneezing can pass through or be trapped by each type of mask. In addition to the videos, there is a preprint for a scientific journal article that details the findings related to improving mask fit.

Lasting Impact

The videos created through this project successfully aided in the fight against COVID-19 by helping the general public make informed decisions about mask wearing. The information on how to best protect oneself while wearing a mask and its successful dissemination provided valuable knowledge that, if put into practice, could help keep people safe and protected from COVID-19, ultimately lessening its impact in the state and beyond. The outcomes of this project may be used to inform public health response in future pandemics as well as in countries currently battling this pandemic.