In the coronavirus pandemic, many people wear the FFP2 mask on their arms when they are outdoors.
Is that unsanitary?
Karl Lauterbach comments on this at the request of Merkur.de.
Munich / Berlin - Don't lose the FFP2 mask.
In the coronavirus pandemic, many have this goal when they are on the move.
And tie the face mask around your arm in the open air.
The question remains: is it still hygienic?
Or do you contaminate the masks?
Could coronaviruses even attach to it?
Karl Lauterbach: A face mask against corona can be worn on the arm
Merkur.de
checked with Karl Lauterbach, the federal government's corona expert.
"If the mask is on the arm, it does not play a role in the spread of the virus, because the infection is then essentially transmitted via aerosols," said the 58-year-old member of the Bundestag and SPD politician.
Lauterbach's assessment agrees with that of other experts.
Recently, the virologist Dr.
Martin Stürmer
RTL
explains that the way the mask is transported has "no real relevance for the overall infection process".
Even more: one expert even thinks that it is more hygienic to wear the face mask on your arm instead of putting it in your trouser pocket, for example.
His thesis: If you have to dig an FFP2 mask out of your pocket, for example, the probability is higher that you yourself spread viruses on the mask.
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“In the meantime, whatever has condensed on it, the mask slaps onto the surfaces there, and everything that's on the surfaces there slaps onto the mask.
Then I have the face when I sit up again, "said Andreas Podbielski, professor and director at the Institute for Medical Microbiology, Virology and Hygiene, University Medical Rostock
Welt.de
.
Can a face mask against corona be worn safely on the arm?
Experts agree
He advises wearing the mask against corona on the arm just above the elbow. Because then "the chance of touching something or someone with the mask is minimal". That means: Whoever wears the face mask here has the least to worry about. Since the vaccination rate is still too low and herd immunity against the coronavirus has not yet been achieved, the face masks are likely to remain a side effect of the pandemic for a while.
(pm)