Pandemics such as influenza, smallpox, and plague have caused the loss of hundreds of millions of lives and have occurred for many centuries. Fortunately, they have been largely eliminated by the use of vaccinations and drugs. More recently, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and now Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) have arisen, and given the current absence of highly effective approved vaccines or drugs, brute-force approaches involving physical barriers are being used to counter virus spread. A major basis for physical protection from respiratory infections is eye, nose, and mouth protection. However, eye protection with goggles is problematic due to “fogging”, while nose/mouth protection is complicated by the breathing difficulties associated with non-valved respirators. Here, we give a brief review of the origins and development of face masks and eye protection to counter respiratory infections on the basis of experiments conducted 100 years ago, work that was presaged by the first use of personal protective equipment, “PPE”, by the plague doctors of the 17^th Century. The results of the review lead to two conclusions: first, that eye protection using filtered eye masks be used to prevent ocular transmission; second, that new, pre-filtered, valved respirators be used to even more effectively block viral transmission.

中文翻译：

---

COVID-19 和其他流行病：如何预防？

流感、天花和鼠疫等流行病已经造成数亿人死亡，并且已经发生了多个世纪。幸运的是，通过疫苗和药物的使用，它们已基本上被消灭。最近，严重急性呼吸系统综合症 (SARS)、中东呼吸系统综合症 (MERS) 以及现在的 2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 相继出现，鉴于目前缺乏高效的已获批准的疫苗或药物，需要采取强力方法，包括正在使用物理屏障来对抗病毒传播。预防呼吸道感染的身体保护的主要基础是眼、鼻和口的保护。然而，护目镜的眼睛保护由于“起雾”而存在问题，而鼻子/嘴巴的保护则由于与无阀呼吸器相关的呼吸困难而变得复杂。在此，我们根据100年前的实验，简要回顾一下口罩和护目镜对抗呼吸道感染的起源和发展，这预示着个人防护装备“PPE”的首次使用。¹⁷世纪的瘟疫医生。审查结果得出两个结论：第一，使用过滤式眼罩进行眼睛保护，以防止眼部传播；其次，使用新型预过滤带阀呼吸器可以更有效地阻止病毒传播。