The COVID-19 pandemic presents enormous challenges. A newly emerged virus to which the world’s population has no immunity, coupled with the speedy movement of people across the globe, has set the stage for an outbreak of proparts not seen within the final century.
For an infection with this virus to occur, it should come into contact with the eyes, nostril, or mouth. This happens when droplets produced by an infected particular person (via speaking, coughing or sneezing), land on the face of one other person. These infectious droplets can journey up to 6 toes, which is the reason to promote social distancing. Touching a surface that is contaminated with infectious droplets after which touching one’s own eyes, nostril or mouth, is one other way for infection to occur. Subsequently, the key to avoiding an infection is to have these areas of the face covered.
In hospitals, face masks and goggles are typically used to forestall exposure to infectious droplets. Nonetheless, face mask shortages are occurring because of interruptions in the supply chain, which is deeply rooted in China and disrupted by the pandemic. Some health care workers have been compelled to resort to scarves and bandannas in a last-ditch try to protect themselves while providing care. Even when plentiful, face masks will not be without problems. Once they develop into wet from the humidity in exhaled air, they lose effectiveness. In addition, some people contact their face more usually to adjust the masks, which increases the risk of an infection if the arms are contaminated.
Cloth masks, although better than nothing, have been shown to be less protective than medical-grade face masks.
We imagine that face shields provide a better solution. There are a lot of types, however all use clear plastic materials hooked up to a headpiece to cover the eyes, nose and mouth, thereby preventing infectious droplets from contacting these areas the place the virus can enter the body. They cover more of the face than masks and forestall the wearer from touching their face. Importantly, face shields are durable, may be cleaned after use, reused repeatedly, and for many people are more comfortable than face masks. Because these shields are reusable and are diversified across the availability chains of a number of industries, the current supply is less limited than for face masks. They can even be made at home with objects from office supply and craft stores.
Each health care worker needs a face shield for protection at work. While face masks are nonetheless needed in some situations, implementation of face shields will significantly reduce the necessity for face masks and extend the limited national supply of masks. Engineers have produced designs for face shields which are within the public domain, and fabrication at scale is relatively simple. To make sure that every health care worker has a face shield, production might want to ramp as much as meet the demand via present producers and recruitment of additional factories. Because the design is easy, huge fast production would not be difficult.
Once the health care workpower is supplied, distribution to the general public ought to begin, with a goal to provide a face shield to every particular person in the country. It must be worn anytime an individual leaves their house, while in any public place, and even at work. Though shelter-at-house approaches are needed to “bend the curve” of this pandemic, the following societal disruption limits the time that political leaders are willing to maintain such measures. Once each particular person is shielded, however, reducing restrictions on movement would carry less risk. Universal shielding might reduce reliance on social distancing since infectious droplets can’t reach the face of vulnerable individuals. Handwashing, however, would stay essential to maintain individuals from infecting themselves with virus found on the palms after touching contaminated surfaces.