[oldalum]

It makes some sense to me that coughing causes a forced leakage of air around the mask which results in contamination of the environment, while simply breathing would cause most of the exhaled air to pass through the mask/filter. If so, maybe the public health lesson should be that if you have a cough you should not go out in public at all; everyone else should wear masks in public. But I agree, this is a preliminary, exploratory study that just points the way toward better formal research.

[oldalum]

It makes some sense to me that coughing causes a forced leakage of air around the mask which results in contamination of the environment, while simply breathing would cause most of the exhaled air to pass through the mask/filter. If so, maybe the public health lesson should be that if you have a cough you should not go out in public at all; everyone else should wear masks in public. But I agree, this is a preliminary, exploratory study that just points the way toward better formal research.