Yes! We have reached the year when vaccines are made available to different countries globally, facing a hard time and witnessing millions of deaths due to COVID-19 infection. But the fear of disease hasn’t just disappeared as people are still surrounded by the danger of getting infected with COVID. It is still late till every individual will be successfully vaccinated.
Various countries’ government bodies have always generated guidelines to follow social distancing protocol and cover themselves with face masks. It is a mandatory step to protect yourself from the virus entering your body through the passageway of the mouth, nose, eyes, etc.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, experts have been continuously advising to wear face masks to stop the disease’s spread, which has shown results. Still, few people choose to wear face shields because they find face masks uncomfortable or have breathing issues while walking or working.
Whether the face shield is as safe and protecting against the COVID virus or the face mask is always the better weapon to safeguard yourself is a question of prime importance. Let’s look into what the experts and studies have to say about Face Shield Vs. Face Mask.
How potent is Face Shield in protecting one from COVID-19?
Different people have a different approach towards the idea of a face shield to be utilized as a protection measure against COVID-19. Many people from service sectors were seen during the pandemic to use face shields instead of masks while giving their service to the clients, such as salons, hospitals, etc.
People turned to face shields because it protected them and prevented discomfort like breathing while wearing a mask. Though wearing a face shield isn’t disobeying the protocol set for the public’s welfare, but using a mask and then a face shield has been proven the best option here.
The associate chief medical and quality officer for University of Iowa Health Care and clinical professor of infectious diseases at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Dr. Michael B. Edmond, supports the use of face shields. He says that it is one way against COVID-19 to prevent droplets’ transmission via nose, eyes, or other passageways.
Yes, it could be said that plastic face shield could prevent our exposure to these infectious droplets; there are chances that these droplets could be transmitted from the environment through the open area around the shield visor. Hence, ultimately, we are coming in contact with the virus.
Dr. Joy Henningsen, one of the clinical assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, mentioned two studies to Healthline as an example. These studies proved that wearing only a face shield and no face mask can have its consequences.
The Professor told about a study conducted in Switzerland amidst the COVID-19 outbreak where people who did not wear masks were tested positive for COVID-19. Out of them, some people who only wore face shields were also tested positive.
The other study she mentioned was published in Physics of Fluids by AIP Publishing, which visually explains that even though the face shield protects us, the initial coughing could release the droplets and slowly transmit from around the visor inside the passageways.
After discussing both these studies, she concluded by saying that it is best to wear plastic face shield along with masks because “face shields can be the supplement of cloth masks but not an alternative option to it.
Hence, both these experts, Dr. Edmond and Dr. Henningsen gave their expert opinion by saying that wearing a mask along with a face shield would mean that we are ready to protect people around us collectively. If I wear a mask, I am wearing it to protect others, and if they do the same thing, they are protecting me.
The experts mentioned wearing a shield that fits you and reached up to your chin or below that is better; otherwise, the droplet could enter from the gap and transmit inside of us. A proper size mask and shield are necessary. Moreover, never forget to clean or disinfect your guard after a long day at work, so that isn’t any virus or dirt leftover from the shield or mask.
The Conclusion
Experts mentioned that people who rely on lipreading to convey or understand the communication could suffer due to wearing masks instead of shields, but shields aren’t a safer option. Wearing masks can protect you from contracting the disease and protecting other people too.
Maybe developing face masks that could be transparent enough for the complete expression of human emotion could do the trick, but for now, we have to co-operate with wearing cloth masks and stop the transmission of this disease.
