Plastic face shields do masks one better

Enlarge / A mask/shield combination provides enhanced protection. (credit: SOPA Images / Getty Images)

One of the biggest challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic is that we simply don't know what works against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Most of the scientific studies on controlling pandemics have been focused on the influenza virus, which is distinct from the coronavirus in a lot of ways. The coronaviruses we do know something about—SARS, MERS, and two cold viruses—are quite different from each other.

We're left without hard data on what works. Do we need two meters of social distancing or three? What types of face masks are most effective? We're trying to gather data on these issues at the same time that we're implementing them. So in a small bit of good news, we now have some data indicating something that's effective: plastic face shields.

To the subcontinent!

The work was done in India and takes advantage of a public health program initiated as the pandemic spread through that country. Workers in a research network in Chennai agreed to voluntarily go into isolation, then visit with the families of those who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in order to explain things like quarantining, mask use, social distancing, and so on.