COVID - People Can Self-Infect - Mask Wearing Helps Prevent This

 Did you realize you can infect yourself with SARS-COVID-19?

Here is how it happens. You can breathe in a bit of the virus and it lodges in your nasal passages where it multiplies relatively harmlessly, probably not causing even discomfort.

Where any SARS infection becomes dangerous is when it enters the lungs - people don't die of COVID virus directly, they either die of an over active immune system triggering what is known as a cytokine storm (reported in other blog posts here) OR through pneumonia triggered by COVID/SARS.

So you can self-infect by breathing in some of the exhaled droplets from your nose deep into your lungs, causing a dangerous SARS infection leading to pneumonia.

This was known to occur during sleep but recent research shows it also happens when you merely breathe or talk while awake, especially if you sneeze.

Wearing a good mask can absorb the tiny water droplets carrying the virus, preventing self-infection.

Masks Do More Than Protect Others During COVID-19: Reducing the Inoculum of SARS-CoV-2 to Protect the Wearer (nih.gov)