In the brave new world we’re all living in, experts are urging us to wear a face covering in public whenever possible.
This protocol is meant to stop us coughing, sneezing, or breathing wet droplets onto other people on the off-chance that we are one of the asymptomatic (or pre-symptomatic) carriers of the little nasty upending our society.
It’s a simple thing we can do in public in order to keep the essential workers out there stocking shelves, dispensing our medicines, doing our delivering, or caring for us in other ways safe, so I do hope everyone is following the directive!
That said, people who wear glasses are finding their plight a bit rougher than the contact-wearing or good-eyesight crowd. Wearing a mask pushes hot, exhaled breath up instead of out, and it can and does fog up their lenses.
It turns out there are some tricks, though, and it might just make your glasses-wearing life a bit less miserable!
One suggestion, attributed to the Tokyo Police Department, is to tuck a folded Kleenex behind your mask. It will absorb any moisture floating upward before it can fog up your glasses.
A second alternative, published in a medical journal in 2011, is to wash your eyeglasses in soapy water and then dry them. It’s the same trick scuba divers use to stop their masks from fogging underwater – the soapy residue makes it difficult for mist to cling to the surface.
So, there you go my friends! Be safe and fog free – and wash your hands, okay?!