For a while they were considered as mask alternatives, but now more and more experts are speaking out against face visors. A ban is in the air.
A face visor is a good alternative to the mouth nose protection, said health minister Rudi Anschober in May. Also a face visor reduces the spreading of droplets. In many cases – especially during physical work – the visor is a practical alternative, because it is more stable and does not get wet through. Now, months later, experts know that a plastic visor – whether covering the entire face or just the mouth and nose – is not as effective as a mouth-nose protector.
For this reason the turquoise-green Federal Government is to plan a prohibition, writes the daily news “Kronen Zeitung.” Apart from several aggravations the government considers therefore to let the face visor prohibit particularly in the catering trade and with jobs with customer contact , is called it in an on-line report from Tuesday. It is currently unclear when the ban will come into force.
The Austrian Society for Hygiene had already advised in July in a statement on masks instead of visors. “Based on the current scientific evidence, we cannot consider the use of clear visors as an equivalent alternative to mouth-nose protection,” it was said at the time. A visor could be an alternative for people who cannot wear MNS for medical reasons. This would achieve a “certain degree of self-protection” and at the same time make a “reasonable, albeit small, contribution to the measures currently being taken to contain the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic”.
The US Centers for Disease Control would make a similar statement: “It is not known whether face masks have any benefit as a means of protecting others from particles in the air they breathe.
— Hector Pascua, with reports from heute.at. Picture: stockilyapp.com
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