Fauci recommends wearing eye protection to protect against coronavirus

Eye protection to block pathogens may be needed to completely prevent coronavirus infection, said the leading U.S. infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“If you have goggles or eye protection, you should use them,” said Dr. Fauci Wednesday in an Instagram Live interview to ABC News.

Coronavirus is primarily contagious from the respiratory drops emitted when people cough or sneeze, but growing evidence suggests that fine aerosols from just talking or breathing can also spread the disease.

Those particles can also get into the eyes, although it is not as dominant as an infection route.

Public health experts – perhaps most notably Dr. Fauci himself – have relentlessly advocated wearing universal masks, but nevertheless struggled to convince Americans to put on face coverings.

The virus continues to spread rampantly in many U.S. states, with no signs of weakening, and even as President Trump insists on reopening businesses and schools, experts such as Dr. Fauci more – no less – protective gear.

In addition to wearing masks, one of the main public health recommendations of officials is that people wash their hands and not touch their faces.

This also applies to the eyes.

If viral particles get on your hands, they will not infect you through your skin. But touching your nose, mouth, or eyes can introduce the virus into parts of cells that it can enter.

“If you really want perfect protection [you need protection] of your mucous membrane surfaces – your mucous membrane surfaces in your mouth, your nose, as well as your eyes, “said Dr. Fauci.

Mucosal surfaces are all covered with types of cells that make mucus, a thick, smooth liquid that forms and protects certain parts of the body.

Mucus helps to clear pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and contains immune cells, including B cells and antibodies.

But we don’t have natural antibodies to the new and unknown SARS-CoV-2, so mucus has less power to neutralize the virus.

And the tissues covering the mucus are necessarily permeable to enable their functions, including mucous secretion and to facilitate their sensory functions, such as breathing through the nose and vision through the eyes.

So when mucus fails, viruses have easy access to the interior of the body where they are safe to hijack and replicate the energy production of our cells.

Doctors have noticed the presence of coronavirus in the eyes. In fact, red or pink eyes became a recognizable sign of the infection when the pandemic spread earlier this year.

That has tipped doctors and scientists about the coronavirus’s ability to infect eyes through our natural tears.

“Theoretically, you should protect all mucous membrane surfaces, so if you have goggles or eye protection, you should use them,” said Dr. Fauci.

He noted that it is not an official or universal recommendation, but that protecting your eyes deprives the virus of another chance to infect you.

Dr. Fauci also discussed the role of aerosols – a fine mist that can linger and travel further through the air – in the transmission of coronavirus.

‘We don’t know the relative role of aerosol [transmission]… we can assume it is playing a roll, ”he said.

Particles this small can probably get through facial covers without a perfectly sealed N95 mask. But so far, they don’t seem to be the leading cause of infection.

“It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stick to wearing univeral masks,” said Dr. Fauci adamantly.