The COVID-19 pandemic presents monumental challenges. A newly emerged virus to which the world’s inhabitants has no immunity, coupled with the speedy movement of individuals throughout the globe, has set the stage for an outbreak of proparts not seen within the last century.
For an infection with this virus to occur, it must come into contact with the eyes, nostril, or mouth. This occurs when droplets produced by an infected individual (through talking, coughing or sneezing), land on the face of another person. These infectious droplets can journey as much as 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 important thing to avoiding infection is to have these areas of the face covered.
In hospitals, face masks and goggles are typically used to prevent 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 pressured to resort to scarves and bandannas in a final-ditch try to protect themselves while providing care. Even when plentiful, face masks aren’t without problems. Once they become wet from the humidity in exhaled air, they lose effectiveness. In addition, some people touch their face more often to adjust the masks, which increases the risk of an infection if the palms are contaminated.
Fabric masks, although better than nothing, have been shown to be less protective than medical-grade face masks.
We consider that face shields provide a greater solution. There are a lot of types, however all use clear plastic material hooked up 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 forestall the wearer from touching their face. Importantly, face shields are durable, can 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 availability chains of multiple industries, the current provide is less restricted than for face masks. They’ll even be made at home with gadgets from office supply and craft stores.
Every health care worker needs a face shield for protection at work. While face masks are nonetheless wanted in some conditions, implementation of face shields will greatly reduce the necessity for face masks and extend the restricted national provide 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 by means of current producers and recruitment of additional factories. Because the design is simple, huge fast production wouldn’t be difficult.
Once the health care workforce is equipped, distribution to the general public ought to begin, with a goal to provide a face shield to every particular person in the country. It ought to be worn anytime an individual leaves their dwelling, while in any public place, and even at work. Though shelter-at-dwelling approaches are wanted to “bend the curve” of this pandemic, the ensuing societal disruption limits the time that political leaders are prepared to maintain such measures. Once each individual is shielded, nevertheless, reducing restrictions on movement would carry less risk. Common shielding might reduce reliance on social distancing since infectious droplets cannot reach the face of inclined individuals. Handwashing, however, would remain essential to keep individuals from infecting themselves with virus discovered on the palms after touching contaminated surfaces.
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