Everyone from educators to students, from security staff to restaurant employees, and from retail workforce to medical/dental personnel are using the Cap Guard face shield. Clipping on to a visor or cap brim in a matter of seconds, the one hundred percent recyclable and reusable thermoformed plastic shield protects the eyes, hangs below the chin, and provides wrap around coverage. Wearing Cap Guard, “the everyday shield,” reminds one of the need for social distancing during these challenging times while still providing a full view of one’s facial expressions and lip movements for clear and effective communication whether indoors or outside.
Cap Guard ends “the compromise”
Too often, verbal communication is compromised when parties are wearing masks. Whether it’s a teacher speaking to a student in school or a restaurant customer asking a waiter about items on the menu, communicating solely through a mask can be difficult, and voice transmission can be garbled or misunderstood. We have all seen it - after several attempts, “the compromise” ends up being someone pulling their mask down so that words can be projected, enunciated, and mouth movements seen more clearly. Unfortunately, this also defeats containment of aerosol particles by the mask. An article this past spring on MedicineNet compared face shields to face masks for efficacy in reducing transmission of COVID-19 and referenced the tendency for masks to be adjusted to assist in communication. “When speaking, people sometimes pull down a mask to make things easier -- but that isn't necessary with a face shield.”
The CDC also warns that mask wearers should not touch their masks with their fingers as they may infect themselves. Thus, every point of contact of fingers to mask, whether it be an adjustment or a simple itch, poses additional risk to the wearer.
Cap Guard Protects
There are also those who simply will not wear a mask properly. There are the “below the nose” mask wearers and the more avant-garde “below the chin” wearers, and then we have plenty of people who simply refuse to wear a mask despite recommendations by the CDC, NIH, and leading Epidemiologists because they either feel required masks infringes on individual rights or that COVID-19 is less than the threat stated.
Face shields, seen as more tolerable, have been supported by leading Epidemiologists such as Dr. Eli Perencevich in a recent AARP article, “Masks are really about protecting others — that data is really strong,” Perencevich says. “Face shields are about protecting the wearer. If you have to be in the community, any kind of cotton mask or medical mask and a face shield is really ideal protection.’ Unlike masks — which people tend to let slip under their nose, or worse, off their face completely — ‘it's hard to wear a face shield incorrectly.”
An article in Reflections on Invention, Protection, and Control provided additional substance for the consideration of using face shields by the general public, “There is – I think it’s fair to say – emerging evidence that face shields reduce the exposure to and emission of respiratory droplets considerably. If you can get comfortable that face shields provide adequate protection of the respiratory tract, they offer you the following benefits over a face mask: They cover your eyes in addition to your mouth and nose; they also cover your face so stop the prospect of a respiratory droplet landing on your face…; They make it much harder for you to touch your face…; They offer the potential for decontamination and reuse…;They have less chance of prompting the occupational hazards of long-term wearing face masks (painful / damaged ears and nose bridges)...; It’s easier to communicate through them because people can see your whole face for expressions and lip reading.”
The Cap Guard face shield is the clear choice alternative in face coverings as part of an overall strategy to reduce COVID-19 transmission in the community setting.
All masks are not created equal
Recent studies of masks reveal there are countless variations with no definitive standards. This lack of standardization has made comparing face shields to face masks next to impossible. Jennifer Veltman, MD, chief of infectious diseases at Loma Linda University Health, says, ‘It’s too complicated to compare a face shield to a face mask because people are not all wearing the same masks,’ Veltman says. ‘In the community, some people are wearing bandannas, homemade masks or N-95 masks. There has not been a study comparing face shields to masks, and doing such study would be challenging since mask materials vary greatly in the community.”
While many are wearing better masks (without ventilation ports or pores to release heat), even the best masks are not meant to be worn repeatedly and degrade over time from moisture from the wearer’s breath. Worse still are the number of inadequate masks being touted as highly effective. This is particularly dangerous if your mask is imported from another country. According to a report published online September 22, and reported in Business Insider, as many as 60-70 percent of those masks imported to the US from China may not meet America's minimum safety standards. “Researchers at ECRI, an independent nonprofit researching safety and cost-effectiveness in healthcare, tested nearly 200 KN95 masks from 15 different manufacturers. They found that a significant majority filtered out fewer than 95 percent of particles, a standard the helps protect healthcare workers and first responders from possible coronavirus infection. That could indicate that of the hundreds of thousands of masks imported from China during the pandemic, up to 70 percent may be less protective than advertised, the study said.”
Cap Guard offers part of the maximum protection
Many leading Epidemiologists see the combination of face shield and face mask as providing the maximum preventative face covering solution. "Masks are source control protecting others, whereas face shields are both source control and protecting yourself from the droplets landing anywhere on your face,” says Eli Perencevich M.D., infectious disease physician and Professor of Internal Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.
Experts warn of a second surge of COVID-19 that could be harder than what was experienced this past spring into summer. Just as wearing of masks have become somewhat commonplace in public, if not mandated, so too may come the addition of face shields offering further protection than just wearing a mask alone.
While there have been no studies in the United States on the efficacy of face masks combined with face shields, there is very interesting data that came out of India last month and was featured in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Community health workers visited COVID-19 positive patients in their homes and the healthcare workers wore face masks to prevent transmission of COVID-19 from patient to healthcare worker. In short order almost twenty percent health workers came down with COVID-19 prompting the immediate change of requiring workers to wear face shields and face masks when visiting sick patients. Of particular note was more than 18,000 home visits were conducted after the implementation of mask and shield without an additional health worker getting sick, “This study found no SARS-CoV-2 infections among community health workers after the addition of face shields to their personal protective equipment…The face shields may have reduced ocular exposure or contamination of masks or hands or may have diverted movement of air around the face…Further investigation of face shields in community settings is warranted.”
Cap Guard face shields are made of durable thermoformed plastic and can be sanitized easily in between uses with soap and water. Mounting to the brim or a visor or a cap, the Cap Guard face shield is optically clear, highly durable, and easily stored in its ready-to-go position. Manufactured in the United States, and readily available, Cap Guard stands out as the “everyday shield” whether being used alone for effective communication or being combined with a face mask for maximum protection.