Demand Surges For See-through Face Masks As Pandemic Swells

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Michael Conley, who is deaf, models a mask that has a transparent panel in San Diego on June 3. Face coverings can make communication harder for people who rely on reading lips, and that has spurred a slew of startups and volunteers to make masks with plastic windows.

Gregory Bull/AP

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Gregory Bull/AP

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Karen Franks, the volunteer who made the mask used by Jessica Cournoyer and Blake Blackmon when their baby was born, is a North Carolina elementary school music teacher who recently turned to sewing masks — mostly clear ones — to help her community.

Karen Franks

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Karen Franks

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Transparent face shields might seem an obvious alternative, but they are open at the bottom, and not recommended by the CDC «for normal everyday activities or as a substitute for cloth face coverings, according to agency’s website. And after a coronavirus outbreak in a Swiss restaurant recently — one in which employees wearing face shields became infected with the virus, while those in cloth masks didn’t — health officials in Switzerland and some European countries also have been panning reliance on face shields.

At least one company — ClearMask, based in Baltimore — has gone so far as to seek and earn FDA «clearance that its mask with a transparent panel is «substantially equivalent to a medical-grade surgical mask for hospitals and other frontline uses.

ClearMask’s founder and CEO Aaron Hsu says it took 3 years of research and development to develop a clear material that won’t fog up.

«For a lot of children communication is non-verbal, says Hsu. «Being able to see who we’re talking to is fundamental to how we communicate and connect.

The company was started in 2017, he says, by four Johns Hopkins University students who identified the need for a niche medical product for deaf people. But now its appeal has gone global.

Bulk orders of ClearMask’s disposable face coverings — meant for just one-time use — are currently going to governments, hospitals and commercial clients, Hsu says, though individuals like interpreters, factory workers, and people working in customer service are ordering them, too, at $67 for the minimum purchase order of 24.

«Demand has skyrocketed, he says. «I mean, we’re working around the clock.

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For most purposes, even a handmade version of such a mask is likely to help in everyday situations, says David Aronoff, director of infectious disease at the Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology and Inflammation.

«We know that the virus cannot penetrate plastic or solid materials, so see-through masks provide potentially a great option for balancing infection prevention with the desire to be able to see somebody’s mouth move, Aronoff says.

«The main thing that we really need to get people to understand, is that wearing a face covering is really important. And if it helps them to wear one that has a cut-out in the middle with a piece of plastic to make it easier to see — that’s great.

Karen Franks, the volunteer who made the mask used by Jessica Cournoyer and Blake Blackmon when their baby was born, is an elementary musical school teacher who recently turned to sewing masks eight hours a day — mostly clear ones — just to help out her community.

Franks says she never leaves her house unmasked, and hopes others in her community will follow suit.

Making masks, «is kind of selfish of me, she says, «because if I can get people wearing masks so I can feel safer and be safer, than maybe me making them for people will do it.

Franks devised the mask she produces by cutting a hole out of a regular cloth mask and inserting a clear plastic Mylar her husband uses at his comic book shop to bag and preserve rare comics. The Mylar, she says, is both durable and repels moisture.

A few of those masks found their way to Blackmon — who had once been Franks’ student, the two subsequently realized.

«Oh, he was a very good student — he has dark eyebrows and a really sweet smile, Franks says. Speaking of smiling, she says, she misses smiling at her students, and is considering using a transparent mask herself — if her school’s classes resume in person.