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 individuals across the globe, has set the stage for an outbreak of proparts not seen within the last century.
For an infection with this virus to happen, it must come into contact with the eyes, nose, or mouth. This happens when droplets produced by an contaminated particular 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, nose or mouth, is one other way for infection to occur. Therefore, 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 prevent publicity to infectious droplets. However, 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 pressured to resort to scarves and bandannas in a last-ditch try to protect themselves while providing care. Even when plentiful, face masks are not without problems. Once they turn out to be wet from the humidity in exhaled air, they lose effectiveness. In addition, some people contact their face more usually to adjust the mask, which will increase the risk of an infection if the fingers are contaminated.
Fabric masks, though better than nothing, have been shown to be less protective than medical-grade face masks.
We imagine that face shields provide a greater solution. There are a lot of types, but all use clear plastic materials connected to a headpiece to cover the eyes, nostril 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 prevent 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 throughout the provision chains of multiple industries, the present provide is less restricted than for face masks. They’ll even be made at home with objects from office supply and craft stores.
Each health care worker wants a face shield for protection at work. While face masks are still wanted in some situations, implementation of face shields will drastically reduce the necessity for face masks and extend the limited nationwide supply of masks. Engineers have produced designs for face shields which are in the public domain, and fabrication at scale is relatively simple. To make sure that each health care worker has a face shield, production will need to ramp up to meet the demand by means of current manufacturers and recruitment of additional factories. Because the design is easy, massive speedy production wouldn’t be difficult.
Once the health care workpower is provided, distribution to the general public ought to begin, with a goal to provide a face shield to every individual within the country. It must be worn anytime an individual leaves their home, while in any public place, and even at work. Although 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 sustain such measures. As soon as each individual is shielded, however, reducing restrictions on movement would carry less risk. Universal shielding could reduce reliance on social distancing since infectious droplets can not reach the face of prone individuals. Handwashing, nonetheless, would stay essential to maintain individuals from infecting themselves with virus discovered on the hands after touching contaminated surfaces.