Right, but staying home is even more effective at preventing exchange of droplets. The face shields should be going to people who can't stay home and are forced to be around contagious people.

A huge number of Americans cannot stay home and are not healthcare workers. People have bills to pay, and not every non-healthcare business is closed, unfortunately.

Right but that still doesn't seem like a good enough reason for Apple to start selling these publicly.

Why unfortunately? I'd say it's quite fortunate that grocery stores and gas stations are still operational.

It's unfortunate because these people are having to put their lives at risk, unexpectedly. They didn't ask to be on the frontlines. In addition, many of them haven't been able to get hazard pay or adequate sick pay.

And some of them (especially within those fields) may be forced by their employer to work part-time and not be eligible for employer sponsored health insurance.

> Right, but staying home is even more effective at preventing exchange of droplets.

There are tens of millions of Americans who are currently working, who cannot stay home, and are not medical professionals.

I’d like to leave my house in a month or two. You?

You’re allowed to leave your house. Exercise, pet walking, and essential shopping and other essential activities aren’t banned. Put on a mask and go for a walk in your neighborhood and keep social distancing.

Right - this is obviously what I would do. However, if face shields were helpful for reducing risks for general interaction (no idea if they are) then I’d also want one. The fastest path to leaving the house is reducing the risk of leaving, so some simple PPE (that is more effective than a mask) would be great.

That isn't what that sentence means...

Think of it like a squirt gun. If someone is spraying a squirt gun at you, a mask will protect you a bit, but it eventually will be saturated and you'll be wet. However, if you have a face shield, the water will just roll off.

Masks are better at protecting you from small particles. Using a face shield without a mask would do you absolutely no good when you're trying to protect yourself from an airborne pathogen or micro-droplets. When you breathe, you're going to draw in air from around the sides of the shield.

If you have a mask (N95), then you're breathing air in through the filtering fibers of the mask. This is what protects you.

Masks and face shields have two very different purposes.

Masks are more effective at preventing spread from untested, asymptomatic infected people though.