Fauci, Birx recommend goggles, face shields in addition to masks to better protect from coronavirus

Sean Noone and Alexa Mae Asperin/KRON

4 years ago

FILE - In this April 16, 2020, file photo, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, listen during a briefing about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. The Trump administration has shelved a set of detailed documents created by the nation’s top disease investigators meant to give step-by-step advice to local leaders deciding when and how to reopen mass transit, day care centers, restaurants, bars and other public places during the still-raging pandemic. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

SAN FRANCISCO (News Nation/KRON) — Dr. Anthony Fauci is now suggesting that people wear goggles, or some other type of eye protection to better protect themselves from COVID-19.

That’s in addition to face masks.

The CDC has already been recommending people wear some kind of eye covering, but neither the CDC nor Dr. Fauci has pushed wearing goggles because they are not as easily available as face masks.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, recommended the use of face shields in addition to masks.

“The mask protects others, to block those droplets and block that contamination that happens when you speak or sing or talk, or even breathe,” Birx said on “Fox & Friends” Thursday morning.

“The thing about the face shields — we think that could protect the individuals and that it would decrease the ability for them to touch their eyes and spread the virus as well as those droplets coming towards them. So there are two different technologies for two different reasons,” said Birx.

Watch an exclusive interview with White House Coronavirus Task Force members Secretary Alex Azar, Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, and Dr. Deborah Birx on NewsNation on WGN America.