BEAUMONT, Texas — With so many different types of masks out there, we can only wonder if some are more effective than others.
The professor says the project started after seeing a lot of debate over masks. Now she and her students are hoping their results can clear some things up with a little work in a lab.
Two students, along with their professor, are doing their part to help us understand more about how easily germs can spread.
Ashwini Kucknoor is an associate professor of biology at Lamar University.
"People already know there is a ton of debate going on with masks and without masks," Kucknoor said.
A few weeks ago, she and two of her students began testing the effectiveness of four different face masks.
"So I thought this was a cool little project for my honors students to do," Kucknoor said.
Surgical homemade cloth masks, N-95s and even face shields.
For a minute straight the students talked directly into the plate, and then coughed and sneezed into it. First, with a mask. Then without.
For the next 24-48 hours, they left them in an incubator and waited for the bacteria to grow.
Vishal Mundodi is a junior at Lamar University. They all agree the results speak for themselves.
"It's a simple project, but it shows things that we should already be taking seriously," Mundodi said. "The controlled showed so much growth on it and that was just a minute of talking and a few coughs."
Overall, the results show that having a face covering significantly reduces spread.
Menna Elsaka is a senior at Lamar.
"I was really surprised to see the results were fairly the same for all kinds of different masks. They were very efficient," Elsaka said.
They even tested masks made at home.
"Even your simple homemade cloth mask, if it is two layered protected pretty well," Kucknoor said.
With these results, they hope others will see that we can all play a role in slowing down the spread of the virus.
"You're not only taking care of yourself, you're taking care of others and if everybody does that, I think we can beat the virus," Kucknoor said.
While masks are effective in slowing the spread of the virus, Professor Kucknoor said and other health professionals say it's not a total replacement for social distancing.