Doing This With Your Mask Could Better Protect You From COVID-19
Feb. 11 2021, Published 11:56 a.m. ET
With the global situation regarding COVID-19 developing virtually every day, people are searching for any possible ways to mitigate the spread of the virus. Since mandates surrounding mask-wearing aren't necessarily even uniform in the U.S., many are looking for better ways to protect themselves when they do have to venture out.
In comes the knot and tuck mask hack, a fairly new method for further securing your face mask and allowing for greater certainty in safety venturing out into the world nowadays. So, how exactly is the hack done, and what does it do to benefit you? Here's a breakdown of it, step by step.
The knot and tuck mask hack: What exactly is it?
The knot and tuck mask hack is a method of more securely wearing a face mask that is useful particularly to those with narrow faces who seem to notice that their masks aren't flush with their cheeks when they put them on.
According to the CDC, these gaps in particularly the sides and above the bridge of the nose where airborne particles can escape prove to be a dangerous consequence of improper mask-wearing, effectively rendering them useless. However, there is a simple way to prevent this, and it just involves a few extra steps when donning your face protector.
Dr. Olivia Cui, a dentist from Calgary, Alberta, posted a viral video to TikTok spurring the revelation in mask-wearing, and she paints a fairly accurate picture of how these issues mentioned by the CDC can be mitigated.
Here's how to actually do the knot and tuck mask hack.
To begin, ensure that your hands are clean, as that is an imperative step before donning any new face protector. Once you're adequately sanitized, the next step is to fold the mask in half, lengthwise. This should leave the bottom and top strips of the mask touching edges, which is exactly what's needed.
Once you've done that, take one ear loop of the mask and proceed to make a knot in it as close and tight as possible to the corner of the mask. Then, repeat the exact same step on the other side, which should shorten the distance the mask can physically move from your face.
Finally, unfold the mask and make sure that the nose bridge piece is formed correctly around your face so that no particles can escape out of the top (and potentially fog your glasses if you wear them). Fold in the corners once more and you should be ready to enjoy a better-fitting mask.
The CDC recently recommended that people begin wearing two masks.
With dangerous variants of the coronavirus that developed in both South Africa and the United Kingdom now making waves in the U.S. as well, the CDC has begun recommending that citizens wear two masks instead of just one to further ensure that they are safe while out and about amongst others.
The new suggestion says that besides a regular disposable face mask, properly secured to one's face, the user should then subsequently add a cloth face mask on top of the disposable one, ensuring a tighter fit and almost double the airborne particle blockage. The agency's policies regarding mask-wearing have largely shifted from their stance at the beginning of the pandemic when they suggested that anything less than a surgical mask was ineffective at stopping the spread of COVID-19.
