Face shield allegory

As I got out of my car, I was in a hurry to enter the mall to be able to purchase needed goods before it closed. I was stopped nonchalantly by the guard by the door who asked me to wear a face shield. What? I'd be only inside for 10 minutes, tops. I don't think I'd be able to contract the virus if I shopped at top speed. But he won anyway and had to go back to where my vehicle was parked to grab that hideous face shield. As soon as I passed by him, I wore that thing like a headband. I guess it is fine though, everyone else was doing the same.

Protocols such as these always irk me. We are one of the few countries in the world that believe in the supremacy of the face shields when all they do is take up space wherever we place them and make it difficult for us to see and breathe. These are some of the instructions that guards wholeheartedly follow so as not to lose their jobs, and yet their superiors also don't see past the point of it at all. It is basically useless. Had it been a great help to bring the number of cases down, we wouldn't have to go through utmost three surges from the time it was mandated as a requirement in closed spaces.

I salute the local governments of Ormoc and Iloilo that made drastic moves in totally removing the use of the face shield despite it being a requirement in the list of minimum health protocols. While I'm writing, I saw that the acting mayor of Cebu City has also designated the Chamber of Commerce to decide on the issue. The other day, Governor Gwen Garcia also said that she supports removing the face shield. The way I see it, the obvious is stated: we don't need it, or not anymore.

Save for conditions where transmission of particles is high such as the hospital set-up or clinics, I think we can move on without the face shield. I think I've already broken more than 10 of the plastic ones that cost me a few hundred bucks and lost almost twenty of the cheap ones that last you only a single use. Even the World Health Organization did not advocate for it but stressed on the use of the face mask.

Whatever monkey business is behind the supply of face shields in the country vis-a-vis their persistent stance to keep wearing it, we all know that it is of no use to us. I hope investigating bodies like the law enforcers or the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee will be able to uncover this pandemic mystery that has been wasting our money for more than a year. There are rumors on who supplied a specific brand of China-made face shields to us, but then again there is no proof. Whoever that is, I hope you got more money than you need.