Medical masks have a white side and a colored side. There is an opinion that if you do not want to inhale someone's virus, then you must wear a mask with the colored side out. And if you are sick and do not want to spread the virus to others, then you must wear it with the white side out.
This is stupidity. The mask doesn't work that way. Well, roughly, as if you were offered to walk down the street in a winter jacket in the usual way, and at the bus stop, turn the jacket inside out.
The jacket, like the mask, is always worn the same way.
The colored (blue or green) side is usually rougher and smoother. This is a water-repellent layer.
When a sick person sneezes or coughs on you, then not the viruses themselves fly out of his nose, but drops with viruses. If such a liquid drop falls on an absorbent surface, it will instantly be absorbed deep into the material, dragging the infection along with it.
Conversely, if the material is water-repellent, then the droplets will remain on the surface along with their viruses. That is why used masks should not be touched on the outside. They, like a vacuum cleaner, have collected infectious drops that lie on the surface and wait to be touched. Like antipersonnel mines.
The inside of the mask is white. It is looser and fluffier to the touch. This side absorbs moisture well. If you are sick, cough and sneeze, then your mucus and phlegm will get stuck in this loose absorbent layer and you will not be able to infect others.
Masks really work in both directions, but not in the sense that they must be turned inside out, but in that they are suitable for both sick and healthy.
If you can't see well in low light, then when you put on the mask, try to feel the loose and smooth sides by touch. Loose is internal, and smoother is external.
Do not be guided by the place where the elastic bands are attached. Different manufacturers of masks seal rubber bands on both the outside and the inside.
Do you wash your masks? I am.
