Wearing two masks at once does little to improve protection against COVID-19. Proven by the world’s most powerful supercomputer

Recently, in a number of countries there have been recommendations to wear two masks at once. Probably because it should better protect against the spread of COVID-19.

According to the source, Japanese scientists recently proved that this is either generally useless, or the effectiveness of such a solution is extremely low.

Using the Fugaku supercomputer, which is now the most productive in the world, scientists simulated a person wearing two masks at the same time, both the same and different. As a result, modeling showed that when wearing one surgical mask made of non-woven material, the efficiency of blocking particles reaches 81% (when worn correctly), but the addition of another polyurethane mask to such a mask increased the efficiency only up to 89%. And wearing two identical surgical masks is generally ineffective, since such a combination promotes less effective penetration of air through the mask, which is why it more actively circulates around the edges, where the mask does not fit tightly to the face.

The best protection option among masks is the N95 class solution, followed by surgical non-woven masks, then cloth masks, and polyurethane are the least effective.