It’s important to note that they wore shields in addition to masks, not that they wore shields instead of masks. Shields on their own are likely not very effective, like in this resort where the people who wore shields-only got infected but those wearing mask-only did not:
I’m annoyed by the countless number of people who wear a mask but don’t cover their nose. It’s maddening, because even employees at work do it. But even more annoying are the employees who seem to think they only need to wear the mask when customers are present, and don’t bother when in the store before we open. And guess what, we just had two more people get it.
I really hate the masks that have swoops under the eyes - they seem designed to create a gap around the nose. Just about everyone I see in one have it too loose at the top so there is a gap. Some have their mask dropping down.
The reasons most people give for not covering their nose:
“I can’t breathe.” Well duh.
“It fogs up my glasses.” Yeah, I know, me, too. Pull it tighter, use the nose wire, and try to set your glasses on top of the edge.
“It irritates my face/it itches/it scratches.” I sympathize. Have you tried other masks? Maybe a multilayer cloth one will feel better.
I saw one lady at the post office, she was wearing a surgical mask, but she was wearing it upside down. She was using the wire to make the bottom edge stiff so it stuck off her face at the bottom. I guess it is sort of like a fsce shield, dropping any exhaled virus particles down onto her shirt. I’m not sure if that really is any safer.
But the worst was two older customers who came in. Their “masks” consisted of a hand-sized piece of clear plastic supported a couple inches from their faces. Sort of like a tiny face shield, except supported from the bottom, not hanging from the top. It was open all around. Sort of a tiny personal sneeze guard.
Agreed. Also, a lot of people don’t seem to realize that many commercially produced masks (like surgical masks) have a wire at the top that you are supposed to bend to conform to the shape of your nose.
Thanks for posting this - I’ve linked to it here before. It’s clear, real-life evidence that they don’t provide protection from the virus. A face shield is essentially the same as walking around with a clear plastic page protector held in front of one’s face.
A page protector would be an improvement over the one I just saw. Another one of those plastic screens, this one about 4 inches tall. It wrapped around the sides, but is open top and bottom.
Of course. The title of the paper is “Plastic Shields Seem to Make Masks Better.” Which is why I said I wear a shield with a mask. The point I was trying to make was that simply having a surgical mask with so many covid positive people was not enough, even though they were not treating the people. They were probably also practicing social distancing. The shield effectively complemented the surgical mask.
Another favorite, pulling their t-shirt up, holding it over mouth and nose long enough to get in the door of a public place, then dropping it back down.
When I see an employee wearing it under nose or pulling it on as they leave the back room I come home and send a customer service feedback to the management and let them know what it will take for me to continue to spend money there. I never report an employee’s name because I’m trying to get better mask training and supervision over all, not get any one employee singled out.
Anthony Fisher, the Archbishop of Sydney, used social media to criticise the vaccine being developed at Oxford University, saying it “makes use of a cell line cultured from an electively aborted human foetus”
Oddly, we got an email this morning saying that employees who need them can request an N95 mask. These will be available for people who have to spend time in the field and who want protection from the smoke.