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Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Plastic face shields are often used as substitutes for masks. But do you know that it was a wrong decision because the face shield was unable to prevent the spread of the corona virus Covid-19?
According to research by Rigen, a Japanese government-backed research institute, nearly 100% of airborne droplets (scattered through the air) measuring less than 5 microns escaped from the plastic face shield.
The special face shield used by restaurant industry workers is also ineffective in preventing the spread of Covid-19. Most of the 50 micron droplets escaped from the face shield and could potentially be inhaled by clients.
The simulation for this research uses Fugaku, the world’s fastest supercomputer. To obtain the results of this research, the Fugaku simulation combines the flow of air with thousands of particles of various sizes. A micrometer is equal to one millionth of a meter.
The leader of the research team, Riken Makoto Tsubakura, urged the public to wear masks instead of face shields to prevent transmission of the Covid-19 virus. The masks used must also meet the standards set by the authorities.
“Judging from the simulation results, unfortunately the effectiveness of face shields in preventing the spread of droplets from the mouth of infected people is still limited compared to masks,” he said, quoted by Fox News, Thursday (9/24/2020).
Tsubokura added that people who are discouraged from wearing masks can wear a face shield, but that is if they are outdoors or indoors with good ventilation.
Fugaku has also run other simulations recently and found that non-woven fabric masks are more effective in preventing the spread of Covid-19 than those made from cotton and polyester.
Researchers at Duke University released similar findings last month, concluding that N95 masks are more effective, but three-layer surgical masks and cotton ones are also good protectors.
[Gambas:Video CNBC](roy / dob)
