Do you wear a face covering while out in public? You should, because you’ll save lives. This experiment shows just how preventative they are.

Everyone has heard the advice. Wear a mask in public. It’s a great tool for stopping the coronavirus, experts say.

Of course, some people are doubtful. Can a face mask really trap the germs that lead to coronavirus?

Doctor Richard Davis, a clinical microbiology lab director for Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, decided to put it to the test.

He got some Petri dishes from his work and performed a range of common activities in front of them.

First, he sneezed in front of two of the Petri dishes. One time, he was wearing a face mask. The second time, he was unmasked.

Then he sang for one minute into two Petri dishes. Once again, he was masked and unmasked.

After that, he spoke at a normal volume for one minute into two Petri dishes, one time with the mask and one time without.

Lastly, he coughed twice into two dishes, masked and unmasked.

A little time passed by, and the different amounts of bacteria captured by the dishes became apparent.

The most striking difference was between the sneezing dishes. The unmasked one was completely covered in bacteria. The masked one was bacteria free.

The singing dishes showed a small amount of bacteria on the unmasked one.

Once again, the masked dish had no bacteria at all.

The talking dishes were a lot like the singing dishes. Some bacteria had grown on the unmasked dish. No bacteria was on the masked dish.

Lastly, the “two coughs” dishes showed a large difference. The unmasked dish had a large cluster of bacteria. The masked one was spotless.

Doctor Richard Davis then posted the results of this experiment to Twitter. The post soon went viral.

To date, it has gained over 330,000 likes and 200,000 retweets and comments. People have been saying things like this:

A few days later, the doctor answered some of the questions he had received.

For instance, some people pointed out that the Petri dishes were capturing bacteria, not a virus. Doctor Davis explained out that viruses would also be blocked by the masks, and that was what he was showing with the captured bacteria.

Also, the doctor then discovered an article from over 100 years ago that outlined a very similar experiment to his.

The article in the California Aggie was published during the Spanish Flu pandemic. It detailed a Harvard University experiment where someone tested out the spread of germs via talking.

The article ended with advice that’s directly applicable to the present-day situation, “Moral; wear your mask.”

Sure, wearing a mask can be annoying at times. We all long for things to get back to the way they were before coronavirus changed practically everything. But at this experiment shows, the more we wear masks, the more we’ll stop the spread of the virus. So wear one now to save lives and to kill the virus.

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Source: Twitter, Bored Panda