Another Unusual Benefit of Face Masks?

As Shin Jie Yong reports, there’s some thinking and research—led mostly by Akiko Iwasaki, a professor at Yale University—that suggests viruses may replicate better in colder noses and airways. As Yong concludes, the theory that keeping noses covered and warm could be helpful in Covid-19 times is interesting but “derived from extrapolations of animal or cell culture studies, and has not been verified in humans for doing so would be unethical.” Presently, the data is not sufficient enough to say whether warm noses play any role in disease control, but the science behind it is interesting…