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Friday, March 29, 2024

Masks and shields

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People from all rungs of society may find wearing face masks and face shields vexatious and bothersome.

But with the continuing uncontrollable rise in infections and deaths, the recoveries despite, from the scythe of coronavirus, which had its epicenter from Wuhan, China, health authorities and the COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases have underlined the need to wear face mask and face shields.

Before we went off stone, the Department of Health has registered 205,581 cases of infections, 3,234 deaths, and 133,990 recoveries—with statistics on the first two appearing on a  destructive run—with no sight when the figures may flatten.

Many have found wearing the face masks and the face shields a bit awkward, but wearing both as required—not just one or the other—displays the decent demeanor of the wearer for the next person, even from a rightful physical distance of six feet.

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Following the protocols can be a great help to the authorities in flattening the spike, which has affected the economy and the employment ledger of many.

If wearing a face mask and face shield is so important to prevent the spread of the disease in hospital and medical center settings, it is as well foremost outside of these areas, where many people gather—after the erstwhile Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine has been downgraded to General Community Quarantine—unnecessarily.

Experts from the Food and Drug Administration and the Center for Disease Control, quoting research, say face shields are beneficial if someone cannot wear a mask. If someone coughs 18 inches from you while you are wearing a face shield, the immediate viral exposure is reduced by 96 percent.

If the person remains coughing and talking with you for 30 minutes, then the face shield blocks 68 percent of the small air particles.

Prolonged exposure reduces the amount of protection of the shield, and, experts still say, if someone combines the mask with a face shield, both can raise added protection.

Regardless of the statistics supporting face shields as a form of protection, experts remain faithful to the face masks as the number one form of protection, with a face mask fully able to cover a person’s nose and mouth and fits securely on the face.

Experts have said the transmission probability from a COVID-19 carrier without mask to a healthy person without mask is high; a COVID-19 carrier wearing mask to a healthy person with no mask is low, and the transmission probability from a COVID-19 carrier wearing mask to a healthy person wearing a mask is lowest.

Easy as that. While it may be inconvenient to a plurality of those going out, wearing a face mask and a face shield demonstrates a person’s unselfish decency in promoting and protecting the health as well of other people in one’s community.

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