The COVID-19 pandemic presents enormous challenges. A newly emerged virus to which the world’s inhabitants has no immunity, coupled with the rapid movement of people throughout the globe, has set the stage for an outbreak of proportions not seen in the final century.
For infection with this virus to occur, it must come into contact with the eyes, nostril, or mouth. This occurs when droplets produced by an contaminated person (via talking, coughing or sneezing), land on the face of one other person. These infectious droplets can journey up to 6 feet, which is the reason to promote social distancing. Touching a surface that’s contaminated with infectious droplets and then touching one’s own eyes, nostril or mouth, is another way for infection to occur. Due to this fact, the important thing to avoiding an infection is to have these areas of the face covered.
In hospitals, face masks and goggles are typically used to stop exposure to infectious droplets. Nonetheless, face masks shortages are occurring because of interruptions within the supply chain, which is deeply rooted in China and disrupted by the pandemic. Some health care workers have been pressured to resort to scarves and bandannas in a last-ditch try to protect themselves while providing care. Even when plentiful, face masks aren’t with out problems. As soon as they change into wet from the humidity in exhaled air, they lose effectiveness. In addition, some individuals touch their face more often to adjust the mask, which increases the risk of an infection if the palms are contaminated.
Material masks, though higher than nothing, have been shown to be less protective than medical-grade face masks.
We consider that face shields provide a better solution. There are a lot of types, however all use clear plastic materials attached to a headpiece to cover the eyes, nose and mouth, thereby preventing infectious droplets from contacting these areas where the virus can enter the body. They cover more of the face than masks and prevent the wearer from touching their face. Importantly, face shields are durable, may be cleaned after use, reused repeatedly, and for many individuals are more comfortable than face masks. Because these shields are reusable and are diversified throughout the provision chains of a number of industries, the current provide is less limited than for face masks. They can even be made at dwelling with objects from office supply and craft stores.
Each health care worker wants a face shield for protection at work. While face masks are nonetheless wanted in some situations, implementation of face shields will vastly reduce the necessity for face masks and prolong the restricted national provide of masks. Engineers have produced designs for face shields that are in the public domain, and fabrication at scale is relatively simple. To make sure that every health care worker has a face shield, production will need to ramp as much as meet the demand through present producers and recruitment of additional factories. Because the design is easy, large speedy production would not be difficult.
Once the health care workpower is equipped, distribution to the public ought to begin, with a goal to provide a face shield to each particular person within the country. It must be worn anytime an individual leaves their home, while in any public place, and even at work. Though shelter-at-residence approaches are wanted to “bend the curve” of this pandemic, the following societal disruption limits the time that political leaders are willing to maintain such measures. Once every particular person is shielded, nevertheless, reducing restrictions on movement would carry less risk. Common shielding might reduce reliance on social distancing since infectious droplets can not reach the face of vulnerable individuals. Handwashing, however, would stay essential to keep people from infecting themselves with virus discovered on the palms after touching contaminated surfaces.