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 throughout the globe, has set the stage for an outbreak of proportions 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 infected person (through speaking, coughing or sneezing), land on the face of another person. These infectious droplets can travel up to 6 feet, 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 an 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 forestall publicity to infectious droplets. Nevertheless, 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 final-ditch try and protect themselves while providing care. Even when plentiful, face masks aren’t with out 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 often to adjust the mask, which increases the risk of infection if the hands are contaminated.
Material masks, although higher 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 numerous types, however all use clear plastic materials hooked up 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 prevent the wearer from touching their face. Importantly, face shields are durable, will be cleaned after use, reused repeatedly, and for many individuals are more comfortable than face masks. Because these shields are reusable and are diversified throughout the provision chains of a number of industries, the present supply is less restricted than for face masks. They’ll even be made at dwelling with gadgets from office supply and craft stores.
Every 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 vastly reduce the need for face masks and extend the limited nationwide 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 each health care worker has a face shield, production will need to ramp as much as meet the demand by way of present manufacturers and recruitment of additional factories. Because the design is simple, large fast production would not be difficult.
As soon as the health care workforce is equipped, distribution to the public ought to begin, with a goal to provide a face shield to each individual within the country. It needs to be worn anytime a person leaves their home, while in any public place, and even at work. Although shelter-at-house approaches are wanted to “bend the curve” of this pandemic, the following societal disruption limits the time that political leaders are prepared to sustain such measures. As soon as every individual is shielded, however, reducing restrictions on movement would carry less risk. Universal shielding might reduce reliance on social distancing since infectious droplets cannot reach the face of prone individuals. Handwashing, nonetheless, would stay essential to keep folks from infecting themselves with virus found on the palms after touching contaminated surfaces.