Much was made of a recent Duke University study that suggested that neck gaiters–tubes of material that athletes often wear to keep them warm–were actually worse than not wearing anything at all in terms of keeping your COVID to yourself.

But an update at Hartford HealthCare notes that:

The Duke researchers say they had hoped to position the study as a test of how to test masks cheaply, not as ranking of 14 mask types. (The study, published Aug. 7 in the journal Science Advances, used a cardboard box with a lens, a laser and a phone’s camera to track particles released from a person’s mouth while saying, “Stay healthy, people.”)

The mask tests, the authors wrote in the paper, “should serve only as a demonstration.” That’s not how it worked out when the results were distributed nationally in the media.

“The press coverage has careened out of control,” Warren S. Warren, a Duke chemist and study coauthor, told ScienceNews.org.

The point of the study was to demonstrate a way to cheaply test mask efficacy. The study itself used one human subject, and only one brand of gaiter.

Yasemin Saplakoglu from Live Science wrote that study co-author Martin Fisher clarified that results should not be interpreted to mean that gaiters are worse than rolling maskless:

…the gaiter was only tested on a single person, making it likely that differences between individual speakers would overwhelm any difference between masks that they noted. What’s more, the researchers tested a single neck gaiter (one that was very thin and made up of a mix of 8% spandex and 92% polyester).

The public should “absolutely not” use this as evidence that neck gaiters are worse than wearing no mask at all, Fischer said. “We tested one mask because we just had that mask lying around … there are plenty of other gaiters out there,” some that could be more protective, he said. Even the way people wear them can change how protective they are, he added.

And the NYT implores us to Save the Gaiters!:

Tests show wide variation in how much protection cloth masks provide. Some homemade masks perform far better than the gaiters tested in the Virginia Tech study, and some perform worse. Over all, tests of fabric masks have shown that two layers are better than one, and that a snug fitting mask with no gaps is best. Most experts agree that the average mask wearer doesn’t need medical-grade protection, and that any face covering, combined with social distancing, probably offers adequate protection for the average person against spreading or contracting the coronavirus.

“I’ve been recommending neck gaiters, and my kids wear neck gaiters,” Dr. Marr said. “There’s nothing inherent about a neck gaiter that should make it any worse than a cloth mask. It comes down to the fabric and how well it fits.”

So you probably can wear a gaiter. To be sure, double the coverage by folding it up on itself.