Face shields do have a lot of advantages over masks

Like Iowa researchers noted, the face shield is easier to clean, reusable, and tends to be more durable and long-lasting.

How you choose to keep yourself protected and others, when you’re out and about, is entirely up to you. It is evident; face shields are an essential part of PPE for health care workers. They are quickly getting adapted as a preferable option for running errands and at the workplace.

”In a health care setting, a face shield provides the added element of “shielding” the mask from potential contamination, thus minimizing the requirement to discard a contaminated mask after a patient encounter,” Charles Bailey, MD, medical director for infection prevention at St. Joseph Hospital and Mission Hospital in Orange County, California, tells Health. “This helps to preserve PPE in resource-limited situations; the face shield can be cleaned after such an event and re-used.”