Yeah, you aren't really supposed to drag the mask down that way, even if it's just to eat and drink. It'll contaminate the inside of the mask with whatever pathogen your unprotected neck collected.

Reno_Lam said:

It doesn't matter hugely. The only masks available to us are not medical grade. Like masks for household dust you can buy on Amazon or Newegg. Those are better than nothing but don't stop germs as effectively as a medical mask. Us wearing these masks is little more than security theater.
And even if you COULD get a medical mask, you shouldn't. Those must be reserved for medical professionals.

usuallydead said:

It doesn't matter hugely. The only masks available to us are not medical grade. Like masks for household dust you can buy on Amazon or Newegg. Those are better than nothing but don't stop germs as effectively as a medical mask. Us wearing these masks is little more than security theater.
And even if you COULD get a medical mask, you shouldn't. Those must be reserved for medical professionals.

Well the point of wearing the masks, at least as they're being encouraged here in the US, is for the safety of others and not for your own safety. These masks help prevent people from aerosolizing saliva and other bodily fluids that could carry the coronavirus and thus spread it around. So they matter, they just matter in regards on lowering spread, not protecting the wearer.

The one advantage these kinds of masks have is they're reusable and can be readily cleaned, so while they have extremely limited protective properties they are much easier to decontaminate. The N95 masks on the other hand aren't meant to be reused and cleaning them is difficult to remove contamination.

NWF_Renim said:

Yeah I suppose that's a solid point.