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 throughout the globe, has set the stage for an outbreak of proportions not seen within the last century.
For infection with this virus to happen, it must come into contact with the eyes, nostril, or mouth. This happens when droplets produced by an contaminated person (through speaking, coughing or sneezing), land on the face of one other 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 another way for infection to occur. Due to this fact, 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 publicity to infectious droplets. However, 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 forced to resort to scarves and bandannas in a last-ditch try to protect themselves while providing care. Even when plentiful, face masks are usually not with out problems. Once they develop into wet from the humidity in exhaled air, they lose effectiveness. In addition, some people touch their face more usually to adjust the mask, which increases the risk of 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 believe that face shields provide a greater solution. There are various types, however 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 forestall 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 across the provision chains of a number of industries, the current supply is less limited than for face masks. They’ll even be made at house with items from office supply and craft stores.
Every health care worker needs a face shield for protection at work. While face masks are still needed in some conditions, implementation of face shields will enormously reduce the necessity for face masks and lengthen the limited nationwide supply of masks. Engineers have produced designs for face shields which can be within 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 by present manufacturers and recruitment of additional factories. Because the design is simple, huge speedy production wouldn’t be difficult.
Once the health care workforce is supplied, distribution to the general public ought to start, with a goal to provide a face shield to every person in the country. It ought to be worn anytime a person leaves their residence, while in any public place, and even at work. Although shelter-at-dwelling approaches are needed to “bend the curve” of this pandemic, the following societal disruption limits the time that political leaders are willing to sustain such measures. Once each individual is shielded, nevertheless, reducing restrictions on movement would carry less risk. Universal shielding could reduce reliance on social distancing since infectious droplets cannot reach the face of inclined individuals. Handwashing, nonetheless, would stay essential to maintain individuals from infecting themselves with virus found on the palms after touching contaminated surfaces.