Exactly how effective is covering your mouth, when coughing, at preventing disease transmission?

Question

Do we actually know how effective this is, or is it just something that everyone says you should do because it is common knowledge"?

"Common knowledge" has been proven wrong many times in the past - for example, we don't try to cure diseases by blood letting any more. It takes carefully designed experiments to determine the truth of these things.

Note that there are zillions of viruses in a cough, and it doesn't take too many to cause a disease. Obviously, covering your mouth while coughing only stops a fraction of these viruses from becoming airborne.

Does anyone know of a study considering the efficacy of covering your mouth to prevent coughs from becoming a disease transmission vector?

Thanks to those of you who remembered that the point of the question was to determine whether there have been any studies performed, even if you couldn't cite one.

For those of you who urged me to continue to cover my mouth, thanks, I think. But I don't think you understand the nature of scientific inquiry, which involves thinking beyond the answers which society has provided you, and which you have apparently accepted without question.

It continues to puzzle me that so many people don't think critically about the beliefs they have been handed.

If you can't quantify it, then you don't understand it.

If you claim to understand how effective covering your mouth is, then you will be able to answer me with either a percentage, or else an equation.

Answer 1

Covering the mouth and nose when sneezing or coughing is still the most effective and practical means of reducing transmission. Using a tissue is better than using the hand as the hands are the most common vector of transmission. Coughs in and of themselves are not considered vectors. We carry the rhinovirus in the respiratory tract (mouth & nose) at all times. Intact respiratory and immune systems can effectively handle quite a bit. I cannot give you percentages or ratios and am unaware of any studies that have been done but if this is what you seek, I wish you success. In the meantime, remember to cover your mouth ;)

Answer 2

An excellent question. It''s been recently demonstrated that rhinoviruses can be left on touched hotel surfaces and remain active for days or weeks.

So if you just cough, the spray winds up on the floor and the viruses are difficult to access, but if you cover your mouth and use that hand to touch a doornkob or shake someone's hand, yuo've become more efficient at transmitting those germs.

Answer 3

Think logically about this...

Sure, it might only stop a small amount from becoming airborne... but it stops a lot more from being projected with sufficient force to send them across a room. That is to say when you cover your mouth.... you're significantly halting the dissipation of said airborne pathogens... meaning that they're only likely to be spread if someone is particularly close to you at the time... or there happens to be a breeze for other reasons.

Then again... a cough is nothing compared to a sneeze...

Answer 4

i think covering your mouth is somewhat effective in reducing the amount of germs that become airborne and very polite. The thing is the virus is now on your hands and can be transmitted onto and by objects you touch then others touch. so you would need to wash your hands frequently as well, and or use disposable tissues/cloths, antibacterial hand gels better than nothing if you can't wash your hands. The more germs you're exposed to the greater risk of contracting it. Please continue to cover your mouth.

Answer 5

It is extremely difficult to isolate a virus in our environment unless we take all the infected ppl and shove them into a closed room.
Bacteria and viruses are everywhere and even if covering our mouths when we cough or sneeze...like everyone else here was saying...these germs are still spreading becuz that is just what they live to do!....think about the amount of people who touch the money you are touching, or the elevator buttons, or the grocery cart handles..did they just cough into their hands?...

Answer 6

Yes, most people cover their mouths when they cough to prevent germs spreading - and then shake hands with someone!

Another disgusting ritual is blowing out the candles on a cake and then serving the cake to all and sundry which is now covered in spittle and germs.

And here's another . . . . some of us wash our hands after using a public lavatory but then we have to open the door using a handle that everyone uses regardless if they have washed their hands or not.

Mucky old world we live in - isn't it?

Answer 7

It may not prevent spread of viruses, but it WILL prevent a big fleck of phlegm from landing on someone's face.

Shaking hands is the major mode of a cold being transmitted. The reason we shake hands is so that we can be sure of getting the latest cold virus.

Colds exercise our immune system so we are prepared for the bad viruses.

Answer 8

Even if it is remotely effective, it's worth covering your mouth and fact of the matter is that it is effective to some degree. This should be sufficient for you to make up your mind.

Answer 9

i does no longer look to it as inevitably fullyyt that individual's fault. it extremely is something that falls on the discern too. it extremely is a case of many generations of taking no action whilst sneezing, like masking our mouths, then as toddlers, the cue is by no skill picked up. i be attentive to because of the fact it extremely is what handed off to me and additionally, there grew to become into no cue from my mum and dad to benefit from the two. the concern persevered for me, nicely into adulthood as i grew to become into consistently surrounded via others who did and didn’t conceal their mouths. attempting to %. it up as a habit, is extremely confusing whilst there at the instant are not the different friends around you to help set up the habit. To be truthful regardless of if, i myself didn’t make a lot of an attempt regardless of if, until eventually I met my husband, I admit, i grew to become into in college and to me that grew to become into taking over maximum my suggestions skill ;P. It nevertheless took a whilst yet I’ve gotten the dangle of this well mannered “habit” (regardless of the shown fact that i'm in particular situations slightly imaginitive with it). we've been married for ten years now - so I do use the rule of thumb "we've shared spit beforehand" around the living house, and sneeze away – unguarded. Exceptions of direction contain the events whilst the two persons sense ill. i be attentive to it is not a hundred% yet I wasn't made to conceal at the back of my hand or to be located in a plastic bubble. ;) To others, I with courtesy and without accusation, tell them, "Gesundheit," and bypass alongside my merry way. it is not my corporation how somebody grew to become into raised, and that i'm unlikely to enable the certainty that they did no longer conceal their mouth for some sneezes wreck the the remainder of mine. =o) A sneeze in particular situations is in simple terms a sneeze, no longer the flu, a chilly or the boogey-guy.