The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many jurisdictions issuing restrictions or stay-at-home orders to combat the spread of the highly infectious disease.
It is known that communicable diseases can be transferred from one person to another. Indeed, certain viruses and bacteria can become airborne when infected individual sneezes or coughs. Those airborne particles, which may include virus or bacteria droplets, may be inhaled by another individual, thereby infecting the individual. The virus and bacteria may also fall onto a surface, which may be subsequently touched by an individual.
While staying home may provide protection for those individuals who have the ability to stay home, health care workers are needed on the front lines to combat the disease, and thus, may have an elevated degree of exposure to the disease. Accordingly, the use of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), such as face masks, face shields, face coverings, gowns, and gloves are critical in ensuring the safety of the healthcare professionals, while also mitigating the spread of the disease.
While PPE is critical to healthcare workers treating patients with the disease, there is also a desire to ease stay-at-home restrictions in a safe and calculated manner. It has been recommended that in order to ease such restrictions, the use of masks and face shields may be adopted to certain degrees on a society-wide level.
For instance, states, airlines, retail stores, or other commercial or public establishments may mandate face masks or “face coverings” as they reopen.
Commonly used face masks include N95 masks, which may filter approximately 95% of airborne contaminants, and cloth face masks, which may filter approximately 2% of airborne contaminants. Although such masks may provide a certain level of protection to a user, face shields may be more effective in protecting the wearer and slowing the spread of communicable disease.
Face shields generally extend over the eyes, nose, and mouth of the wearer, and thus, typically provide a greater amount of coverage when compared to conventional medical masks. Furthermore, face masks may be limited in their durability and lifespan, whereas face shields may be reused indefinitely and can be easily cleaned with common household disinfectants. Face shields are also preferable to the typical face mask because the configuration of face shields may reduce the likelihood of potential autoinoculation by preventing the wearer from touching their face.
Racing Optics saw that there is a need for an improved face shield that can be easily and comfortably worn to mitigate the spread of contaminants, welcome REALSHIELD.
When attached to the cap, the REALSHIELD protective face shield extends over a wearer’s face to provide protection against contaminants, airborne droplets, particles, dust, debris, or the like.
The face shield includes a transparent panel that provides protection to the wearer but also allows a wearer to look therethrough without substantially inhibiting the wearer’s vision.
In this regard, the face shield may be mounted on the cap or headgear such that the a face shield is positioned in close proximity to the user’s eyes to allow the user to easily view through the face shield and focus on an object beyond the face shield, rather than focusing on the face shield itself.