
Face masks are an absolute necessity during the coronavirus pandemic. They help protect the wearer and, more importantly, the people around them. Yet, they also cover the majority of people’s faces, and it can be dull to wear a generic surgical mask or even the same cloth mask over and over again. Some people have started to get creative with face masks, which has led to some interesting, although scientifically dubious, results.
In recent months, a metalsmith in Turkey has started making solid silver and gold face masks as “timeless” items. As explained by the Hürriyet Daily News, Sabri Demirci said he heard that silver and gold had anti-bacterial properties, which inspired him to make face masks made of these precious metals. This sounded absurd, so we decided to get in touch with Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist and professor at the University of California San Francisco, so he could tell us whether these masks would even be effective.
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