Coming soon, full body condoms. Dr. Fauci suggests people wear this extra layer of protection to prevent coronavirus spread Americans should consider wearing goggles or some type of protective eye shield to prevent spreading or catching COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci said in an interview Wednesday. “If you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it,” the nation’s top infectious disease expert told ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton during an Instagram Live conversation with the network. He said people who shield their eyes are achieving more “perfect protection” than people who only cover their nose and mouth. “You have mucosa in the nose, mucosa in the mouth, but you also have mucosa in the eye,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said. “Theoretically, you should protect all the mucosal surfaces. So if you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it.” He said such protection is still “not universally recommended,” but “if you really want to be complete, you should probably use it if you can.”
I am waiting for the headline...'Dr. Fauci, nation's top infectious-disease expert, tests positive for COVID."
Today I wore a facemask, googles, and gloves going into a Walmart between Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, where facemask masks are required for entry. Walmart has employees outside checking for facemasks and limiting the number of people who can be in the store at one time by keeping real time counts. I noted some other shoppers were wearing gloves. No one else was wearing substantial eyewear except me. Of interest, I noticed quite a few people wearing masks inside of cars, like I have. Sometimes I simply forget I’m wearing a mask. Wearing a mask is something that can be gotten used to by most people, I suspect. The Apple store in Southlake, TX is closed until further notice. Going out of business signs in store windows have replaced ubiquitous help wanted signs a year ago. Commercial real estate prospects are looking bleak. The Verizon store in Southlake only takes appointments, effectively limiting the number of customers inside that store to perhaps 2 or 3. The Verizon store employee said they sent a lot of people to a nearby Verizon store that does not require appointments. Great, so Verizon is effectively concentrating people into one store? Of note, Southlake, especially the specific area I was shopping in, is considered higher end. Let the socio-economic and race debates reignite!
He's actually correct in practice. The soundness of this advice for the everyman is limited but in terms of actually preventing the spread of infection properly used mask/face shield/gloves is a great way to prevent things. Notice, I said properly used. Improperly used gloves confer no benefit, and an eye shield you take off every 10 minutes because it's uncomfortable is worse than useless. Given that the people I've seen using mask + gloves aren't using them correctly I don't have high hopes for people doing anything but cargo culting PPE. Not to invoke a no true scotsman but if you can "forget" you're wearing a mask you're either not wearing it right, or wearing one that confers no protection from airborne contaminants. A properly fitted N95 mask is incredibly uncomfortable and makes breathing exceptionally difficult when compared to a standard surgical/KN95 mask. You will not forget you have it on. There's a certain level of difficulty, by design, pulling in new air because the N95 has a strong filter in it. With a well fitted N95 you almost need to deliberately breathe.
I wear the 3 ply surgical masks. My purpose for wearing this type of mask is for me to potentially buy a few minutes of protection while being near an infected individual, should they cough, sneeze, or shout. I may have enough time to quickly distance myself to avoid infection, whereas if I had no protection, I may otherwise have been infected. N95 masks are nice for extra protection, if you can get them. I don’t know the numbers, but my guess is a good n95 mask might buy you an hour of protection in a not too extreme Covid hotzone. In no way do my googles and surgical mask have a safe application beyond a brief exposure. I continue to avoid groups of people for more than a few minutes and regularily replace or disinfect my PPE.