Do face shields work better or worse than cloth masks?

I can’t keep my 80 something year old MIL out of the bars (she loves her Trivia and honestly, I like knowing that she is exercising her mind), and she thinks that her partners wearing plastic face shields will make the trivia experience better because then she can see their mouths when they talk. So, knowing that I can’t keep her out of the bars, I bought her a dozen face shields that she can give or loan to her trivia partners.

Have I just made things worse? Is it possible I made things better? Is it a wash?

Additional question, are masks and face shields worn together better than just a mask if one wears glasses?

Mods, sorry if this should have been quarantined, I get so confused about where I should put border line stuff like this. Also, why can’t we change font size anymore or am I being blind?

Face shields don’t do much to stop inhaled or exhaled virus particles, since they are a relatively far distance from the mouth and nose.

Face shields in combination with a mask are a great idea. My daughter (a nurse) has worn this combo, has had exposure to known COVID 19 patients, and has remained negative.

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There are apparently now clear masks out there which might be a better choice.

But flatlined’s question was “How effective are face shields WITHOUT MASKS?” That’s what her MIL is proposing

And upon reread, it looks like she and her friends are wearing masks now. Her plan is to pass out face shields and get them to take OFF their masks.

(It sure sounds like MIL would be pressuring, or at least encouraging, them to ditch the masks if OP hands her a bunch of shields)

It would concern me that the REASON they need to read lips is that in a crowded bar you have to shout to ne heard. Shouting is known to be an issue. Is the music loud? Would the bar turn it down?

Second, I really would like to know the answer to this. School districts around here seem to be opting for shields over masks and treating them as equivalent. What is the conventional wisdom?

Thank you SCAdian!

digs, you are right, I wasn’t as clear as I could have been.

MIL’s teammates are only wearing masks because she pressured them into doing so (I think I probably bought the masks, too, cause I sent MIL a dozen a few months ago). She does think they will like the shields better, so that’s a plus.

I haven’t been to any of her trivia sessions, but I think the problem with the masks is that she is fairly deaf but isn’t “old enough” to need hearing aids. I know that I have to be facing her when I talk or she doesn’t hear me clearly.

But yeah, I would like to know the answer for myself as well. For the most part, I’m good with face masks, but if face shields are as good or as better I will start using them if only to stop having to mess around with my glasses.

There is at least some evidence that face shields are about as good as cloth masks in non-high-risk environments. They aren’t as good at preventing you from spreading it, because the droplets you expel will take a downward trajectory and go out under the face shield, but they do prevent most droplets other people exhaled from getting to you. Per the above cite, an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association:

Most important, face shields appear to significantly reduce the amount of inhalation exposure to influenza virus, another droplet-spread respiratory virus. In a simulation study, face shields were shown to reduce immediate viral exposure by 96% when worn by a simulated health care worker within 18 inches of a cough.10 Even after 30 minutes, the protective effect exceeded 80% and face shields blocked 68% of small particle aerosols,10 which are not thought to be a dominant mode of transmission of SARS-CoV-2. When the study was repeated at the currently recommended physical distancing distance of 6 feet, face shields reduced inhaled virus by 92%,10 similar to distancing alone, which reinforces the importance of physical distancing in preventing viral respiratory infections.

A face shield is probably offering a pretty low level of protection. Even if in a laboratory setting they perform well, the real world scenario in the OP will be in a room full of people with air swirling all around. Without any filtration, I would expect many droplets to be inhaled and exhaled. A face mask is better than nothing in that environment, but it’s far from providing a high level of safety. One big risk is that the person wearing the face shield gets an inflated sense of security and puts themselves in very risky situations thinking the shield will protect them.

One situation a shield is better is probably a direct cough or sneeze to the person’s face. The shield should catch most of the splatter that would have otherwise landed on the person’s face and in their eyes. Wearing glasses is also beneficial for this, but they aren’t as good as a shield since the size of the glass is relatively small. It would be easy for some sneeze splatter to swirl around the edges of the glasses and into the person’s eyes. But glasses are still better than nothing.

Based on your MIL’s age and that environment, it’s probably very risky for her to be there regardless of what she wears. But given her age, I’m guessing it’s hard to change her mind about it anyway.

You can probably also magnify in your browser, and do that about as many times as you please.

Seems to me that while shields may make lip-reading easier they will form a sound barrier that could make hearing/understanding harder.

I got one for an elderly relative who has a hearing aid because the regular mask + hearing aid was uncomfortable. I figured a shield was better than nothing, which is what she apparently does when her ear hurts (sigh). I did a lot of research and there is some data that suggests it might be as helpful, but nothing for sure. And I measured that with her using a homemade masks or a paper “not for medical use” mask. I mean, if we’re not using N95s correctly, everything else is kind of best guess at this point, right?

Plus with an older, not particularly adept senior, using an adjuster for the ears or tying it is going to be very hard. A shield seemed easy and no conflict with hearing aids.

(She also didn’t use it today because she didn’t know that it was for when she goes out. Which is a bold faced lie because… what else is it for? She’s almost 90. She’s not cleaning asbestos out of the fucking roof).

I talk to MIL every day and I can tell that she NEEDS social interaction. When it comes to her mind, she is in a use it or lose it situation. She really does need to go to the bars and try to win a pitcher of beer for winning trivia and she doesn’t even drink beer.

Eating is also a social interaction for her, and she has lost almost 20 pounds since “going to jail”. Not good for someone who was already underweight.

My plan now is to encourage her to wear a mask and shield whenever she goes out. I nagged her into wearing a mask and convinced her that it was so important that she convinced her trivia partners to also wear them. Perhaps she will get so used to the shields that she will forget that she is also wearing a mask.