How to Fix a Blurry, Unclear Face Shield Lens for Droplet Protection

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic beginning to spread rapidly in the Taiwan region, most regions nationwide have entered a Level 3 alert zone state, and a Level 4 alert is not even ruled out. Many people have begun stockpiling epidemic-prevention supplies ahead of time.

Besides masks, protective clothing, and rubber gloves, there is actually another kind of face shield that can strengthen virus isolation (mainly by preventing outside airflow and droplets from hitting your face directly). Face shields come in two major categories, closed and open; the latter is cheaper and is also called a disposable shield. Taobao goods cost about NT$30 each, yet Taiwanese online shopping platforms sell them for five or six hundred and up—downright profiteering.

I suggest that anyone wanting to buy this kind of disposable shield just ask at a nearby larger pharmacy; the more conscientious ones sell them for just over 100.

Recently, whether seeing New Taipei City volunteers on TV or hearing relatives complain, I discovered that the lenses on this kind of shield are all blurry and unclear, making people reluctant to wear them on the street for fear of not being able to see cars and motorcycles speeding along the road—and after wearing them for a long time in a hospital, people even feel dizzy from the blurred vision.

Well, it’s actually not that the face shield has a design flaw—it’s that everyone simply doesn’t know they need to peel off the protective film on the shield’s lens!

And this film isn’t easy to peel off either. I myself picked at it with my fingernail for ages, at one point even wanting to give up and just admit it was a cheap-goods defect. But after picking for a while, I could slowly work a small pocket into the protective film, and then it was easy to peel off.