system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
I use a P100 respirator to protect myself from infection, but sometimes powerfully malodorant smells (garbage full of diapers, etc) are noticeable through the mask. Does this indicate that I am at risk of infection from airborne sources, specifically corona virus?
gpt
The molecules that convey smell are typically orders of magnitude smaller than viruses. What's more, molecules that are able to trigger your sense of smell can be as small as oxygen molecules, which you don't want your mask to block.

I don't know the exact specifications of a P100 mask, but it's perfectly possible that it is able to filter out "large" objects such as viruses, while allowing smaller objects, such as the regular components of air as well as molecules that trigger a smell to pass through relatively unhindered.