Snippets from the Age of COVID-19: May 18, 2020

Going grocery shopping in Airdrie, Alberta, one can see many people wearing masks and gloves. This is a good preventative in curbing the spread of COVID-19.

Being a member of the vulnerable category (I have 4 underlying medical conditions that makes me prone to complications arising from COVID-19), I wear a face shield as well, which I got from Bumper-to-Bumper in the form of a grinding mask. One can get these types of face shields from welding equipment stores as well. These grinding shields, in my opinion, offer superior protection than medical face shields. They have a plastic shield on top so that particles can't hit your face from atop your forehead. As an aside, I've noticed that medical face shields only have a porous top portion which would allow the virus to get inside the face shield. I've also seen medical face shields that are completely wide open on top. that, in my opinion, is the Achilles heel and defeats their purpose for protection.

Research has found that people can be infected through their eyes according to Sergio Zaccaria Scalinci and Edoardo Trovato Battaggliola from the PMC U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, "Conjunctivitis can be the only presenting symptom of COVID-19." Because of this, I choose the extra protection afforded by grinding shields. Goggles work as well.

I use gloves on occasion. I've found that grocery stores, as well as Walmart, do have disinfecting hand sprays available. This saves me the cost of having to use gloves. In addition, if I have to go to another grocery store, it saves me the cost of having to discard one pair of gloves and donning another pair.

People who wear one pair of gloves to several different stores are spreading COVID-19 around by doing this. It would be analogous to wearing the same condom while having sex with multiple partners. Sexually Transmitted Infections would run rampant in those cases.

With the relaxation of restrictions, one must not relax common sense in preventing the spread of this virus. It hasn't just magically disappeared. "Out of sight, out of mind," is a dangerous precedent. Let's stay safe and stay healthy!