【The Perfect Taste of Sex】

The The Perfect Taste of Seximages streaming out of China as the country struggles to contain the coronavirus outbreak depict masses donning protective medical face masks. As Wiredhas pointed out, these masks have become a symbol of the pandemic. And Americans are taking notice.

As the disease spreads around the world and experts warn that the virus, known as Covid-19, will likely come to U.S. shores soon, Americans have apparently been wondering how to protect themselves — and whether they should take a cue from Chinese citizens' facial attire.

That worry is reflected in our Google searches. According to Google Trends, searches for "face mask" reached an all-time high in February.

---

You May Also Like

---

---

The coronavirus has so far infected over 80,000 people around the world, resulting in over 2,600 deaths, according to the World Health Organization's (WHO) latest situation report.

We can't know for sure if the search and disease phenomena are connected, and whether worry about the disease is specifically causing people to search for face masks more. However, the timing of the search spikes points to a correlation.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Searches for face masks have been climbing over time, but have remained fairly steady with slight spikes and dips over the last five years. In late January 2020 — the moment in which news and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus began to go mainstream — there was an unprecedented jump in that specific search.

While the week of Jan. 26 - Feb. 1 saw the search reach an all-time high, searches for the term also currently appear to be climbing. Reports that the disease had spread to the Middle East and Europe broke over the past week and the CDC announced Tuesday that the U.S. should prepare itself for an outbreak.

Sales of face masks have also increased. Wiredreports that Amazon is attempting to stop vendors from engaging in price gouging as demand hits new heights. Hospitals have also seen shortages of medical face masks, which some are attributing to purchases made by private citizens.

While face masks are popular in China and are certainly a vivid representation of the disease's impact, they might not have as big of an impact as wearers hope. Experts say that the most effective way to prevent against the coronavirus is to wash your hands frequently. Masks could prevent infected droplets from entering your nose and mouth. However, your eyes are still vulnerable and people are likely to still touch their mouths and nose under their masks, which undoes any protection it would provide otherwise.

That's not the first thing a concerned person will find out when they search for face masks, though. Information about the masks' efficacy doesn't even surface up top in a Google search. You can find that below the shopping carousel, as the fifth result.

An incognito mode search for "face mask" delivers mostly shopping results. Credit: screenshot: rachel kraus / mashable

Knowledge is power, but face masks are no guarantee for health.

Topics Health COVID-19

• Entertainment
• Tech
• Games
• Digital Culture
• Deals
• Social Good
• Life
• Shopping

• Kanye Unbound
• 'Microsoft Flight Simulator' gives players a look at Hurricane Laura
• You can now create interactive charts with GPT
• Microsoft Build 2024: What to expect
• The Usual Suspects
• Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 announced — and it's threatening the M3 MacBooks
• This is the fattest of the fat bears
• SpaceX provides satellite internet service to towns hit by wildfires
• Ode to the Liberal Muslim
• Tablet PC shipments decline by 10% y

• Bose Deal: Save $100 on the Bose SoundLink Revolve+
• Femtech startup launches digital period pain clinic
• Prime Day 2 fitness tracker deals: Fitbit, Apple Watch, and more
• How to watch Texas vs. OSU football livestreams: kickoff time, streaming deals, and more
• Best Meta Quest games 2023, according to a hardcore VR gamer
• A Loss Like a Knife: The 2019 Australian Open by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
• How to watch UW vs. Oregon football livestreams: kickoff time, streaming deals, and more
• Element of Sacrifice: An Interview with Maurice Carlos Ruffin by Peyton Burgess
• Apple supports World AIDS Day with new red Watch faces
• How to recover from a tech layoff with community support

• #churchtoo
• Possible life on Venus prompts a whole bunch of alien memes
• The best deals for National Streaming Day 2024
• The angry Australian animal Australians are actually scared of
• The Year History Died
• 25 best science
• NYT's The Mini crossword answers for May 19
• Famed NYC clock is counting down to Earth's climate change 'deadline'
• Best Dyson deal: Get the Dyson Airstrait Straightener for its lowest price yet
• What is YouTube TV and how much is it?

• Seizing Socialism’s Moment
• Celtics vs. Pacers 2024 livestream: Watch Eastern Conference Final for free
• CEO states enhancing “sense of crisis” is primary goal for ByteDance · TechNode
• 29 best thriller movies on Netflix
• Labor History in Real Time
• Alibaba mulls sale of grocery retail chain Freshippo: report · TechNode
• Xiaomi 15 smartphone set to debut with Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 in October · TechNode
• Possible life on Venus prompts a whole bunch of alien memes
• Border Theater
• One of OpenAI's safety leaders quit on Tuesday. He just explained why.