The COVID-19 pandemic presents enormous challenges. A newly emerged virus to which the world’s inhabitants has no immunity, coupled with the fast movement of individuals across the globe, has set the stage for an outbreak of proportions not seen within the final century.
For infection with this virus to occur, it must come into contact with the eyes, nose, or mouth. This occurs when droplets produced by an contaminated individual (via talking, coughing or sneezing), land on the face of another person. These infectious droplets can travel up to 6 ft, which is the reason to promote social distancing. Touching a surface that is contaminated with infectious droplets and then touching one’s own eyes, nostril or mouth, is one other way for an infection to occur. Therefore, 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 publicity to infectious droplets. Nonetheless, face masks shortages are occurring because of interruptions within the provide 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 and protect themselves while providing care. Even when plentiful, face masks aren’t without problems. As soon as they grow to be wet from the humidity in exhaled air, they lose effectiveness. In addition, some people touch their face more typically to adjust the mask, which increases the risk of infection if the arms are contaminated.
Cloth masks, although higher 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 various types, however all use clear plastic material attached to a headpiece to cover the eyes, nostril 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 forestall the wearer from touching their face. Importantly, face shields are durable, can be cleaned after use, reused repeatedly, and for many individuals are more comfortable than face masks. Because these shields are reusable and are diversified across the availability chains of multiple industries, the present supply is less limited than for face masks. They can even be made at residence with objects from office supply and craft stores.
Every health care worker wants a face shield for protection at work. While face masks are nonetheless needed in some situations, implementation of face shields will tremendously reduce the necessity for face masks and lengthen the limited national provide of masks. Engineers have produced designs for face shields that are within the public domain, and fabrication at scale is comparatively simple. To make sure that every health care worker has a face shield, production will need to ramp up to meet the demand via current manufacturers and recruitment of additional factories. Because the design is simple, huge fast production wouldn’t be difficult.
Once the health care workdrive is equipped, distribution to the public ought to start, with a goal to provide a face shield to each person in the country. It ought to be worn anytime a person leaves their house, while in any public place, and even at work. Although shelter-at-residence approaches are needed to “bend the curve” of this pandemic, the ensuing societal disruption limits the time that political leaders are prepared to sustain such measures. Once each particular person is shielded, nonetheless, reducing restrictions on movement would carry less risk. Common shielding could reduce reliance on social distancing since infectious droplets can’t attain the face of susceptible individuals. Handwashing, however, would stay essential to keep folks from infecting themselves with virus discovered on the palms after touching contaminated surfaces.