There are currently no specially developed masks to protect against viruses, but existing masks are dust masks that are used for worker safety purposes and provide protective effects on airborne particles known to everyone as N95 masks. The N95 is one of the most common face mask filter standards published by NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health). The equivalent of this in European countries is EN149 standard; Although the N95 performance class masks do not have the exact equivalent in this standard, they are somewhere between FFP2 and FFP3. At the same time, surgical masks used in hospitals, surgical operations are a completely different product class than N95 and equivalent respirator-type masks, protecting the operating environment from contamination by blocking the particulate saliva or respiratory secretions that will spread to the environment by the wearer. However, the surgical masks also protect the wearer to a certain extent from aerosols or bioaerosols in the air.

Experts advocate that surgical masks cannot sufficiently protect against viruses, and it will be more efficient to choose masks known as N95. Although N95 masks have high filtration efficiency, they are thicker than surgery masks and rather uncomfortable for long-term use in daily life. These masks make breathing difficult during use, and users experience serious problems due to the increase in temperature and humidity between the face and the mask tissue.