[endorphone]

This seems like an invented rationalization given that the average person touches their face up to 3000 times a day already (up to. It is trivial to find details of this range). If you adjust a mask a few times, but in return it stops you from touching your nose/mouth constantly, that's an enormous win.

And just to clarify, again people are talking about surgical masks. N95 masks, which are still "cheap paper masks", indisputably work. This is way beyond debate.

[tyfon]

It is what I read by an associate in microbiology and infection control [1]. I tend to listen to experts but maybe he's wrong about the field he is studying, I'm not an expert :)

Translated from Norwegian:

- Does a facemask help against spreading virii?

- No, not when you are using it out among people. The point is that you will scratch your face and get your fingers in contact with your soft tissue. So it is counterproductive to use these regular paper masks, says associate in microbiology and infection control at the University of Southeast Norway, Jörn Klein.

[1] https://www.nettavisen.no/nyheter/smittevernforsker-munnbind...

[whatshisface]

>The point is that you will scratch your face and get your fingers in contact with your soft tissue.

So they're saying that... masks will help if you don't touch your face? Makes sense to me, the PPE that the CDC recommends involve a face shield in addition to a mask.

[vanusa]

Again this is about "regular paper masks" -- not specially rated masks such as N95.

Also, it dodges the question of - "What if, being adults, we train ourselves not to scratch our face (in view of the seriousness of the issue)? Will masks help then?"

[endorphone]

But we already touch our face endlessly. Again, this sounds like he invented this on the spot. This wasn't studied, isn't the result of an analysis, it's just a lazy response. Further, again he was talking about surgical masks.

Surgical masks don't work. Surgical masks are a subset of masks, and it is grossly inaccurate to extrapolate that out to "masks don't work".

[tyfon]

I never claimed all masks don't work, I was talking about cheap paper masks. It might not have been clear enough in the original comment.

[cheerlessbog]

Citation for the 3000 value? That seems to be a meme : I can't find evidence for it. A study [1] found 23 times an hour which is 368 times in a 16 hour day.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/25637115/

[majos]

Tangent, but 3000 times per day is about once every 20s awake. That seems high?

[tyfon]

The article I refer to in the sibling comment claims 23 times an hour on average so it would mean about 550 times during a day/night if you don't sleep. It sounds a bit more plausible.

[endorphone]

That's the high, though apparently the average is more in the range of 550 times or so.