ArticleBiophysical journal2021
Hydrating the respiratory tract: An alternative explanation why masks lower severity of COVID-19.
Article in Biophysical journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Potential Immunomodulatory Effect ofNutrients · 2023Trial
- Investigating Mask-Associated Dry Eye and Contributing Factors in Healthcare Providers.Clinical ophthalmology (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Article
- Longitudinal assessment of the impact of COVID-19 infection on mask-wearing behaviors.BMC public health · 2024Article
- A Registry-Based Observational Study on the Maternal and Fetal Outcomes of COVID-19 Patients in Hong Kong.Maternal-fetal medicine (Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.) · 2024Article
- Review
- Differences in airborne stability of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern is impacted by alkalinity of surrogates of respiratory aerosol.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2023Article
- Warmer ambient air temperatures reduce nasal turbinate and brain infection, but increase lung inflammation in the K18-hACE2 mouse model of COVID-19.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
- The quest for meticulous patient care, even in the challenging COVID-19 era, is a trait inherited by professional anesthesiologists.Journal of anesthesia · 2022Article
- COVID-19 in the Airline Industry: The Good, the Bad, and the Necessary.New solutions : a journal of environmental and occupational health policy : NS · 2022Article
- Hybrid measurement of respiratory aerosol reveals a dominant coarse fraction resulting from speech that remains airborne for minutes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Face mask use and physical distancing before and after mandatory masking: No evidence on risk compensation in public waiting lines.Journal of economic behavior & organization · 2021Article
- Breathing, speaking, coughing or sneezing: What drives transmission of SARS-CoV-2?Journal of internal medicine · 2021Review
- A smart mask for active defense against airborne pathogens.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Surgical masks do not increase the risk of heat stroke during mild exercise in hot and humid environment.Industrial health · 2021Article
- Face masks effectively limit the probability of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2021Article
- What the science says about lifting mask mandates.Nature · 2021Article
- Can Prophylactic High Flow of Humidified and Warmed Filtered Air Improve Survival from Bacterial Pneumonia and SARS-CoV-2 in Elderly Individuals? The Role of Surfactant Protein A.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Biophysicists' outstanding response to Covid-19.Biophysical journal · 2021Article
- Higher Temperatures, Higher Solar Radiation, and Less Humidity Is Associated With Poor Clinical and Laboratory Outcomes in COVID-19 Patients.Frontiers in public health · 2021Article
- Hydration for Clean Air TodayMolecular Frontiers journal · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The seasonality of respiratory diseases has been linked, among other factors, to low outdoor absolute humidity and low indoor relative humidity, which increase evaporation of water in the mucosal lining of the respiratory tract. We demonstrate that normal breathing results in an absorption-desorption cycle inside facemasks, in which supersaturated air is absorbed by the mask fibers during expiration, followed by evaporation during inspiration of dry environmental air. For double-layered cotton masks, which have considerable heat capacity, the temperature of inspired air rises above room temperature, and the effective increase in relative humidity can exceed 100%. We propose that the recently reported, disease-attenuating effect of generic facemasks is dominated by the strong humidity increase of inspired air. This elevated humidity promotes mucociliary clearance of pathogens from the lungs, both before and after an infection of the upper respiratory tract has occurred. Effective mucociliary clearance can delay and reduce infection of the lower respiratory tract, thus mitigating disease severity. This mode of action suggests that masks can benefit the wearer even after an infection in the upper respiratory tract has occurred, complementing the traditional function of masks to limit person-to-person disease transmission. This potential therapeutical use should be studied further.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.