Neck gaiters, gained sudden notoriety in early August 2020 when headlines declared that wearing them was worse than wearing no mask at all. Lost in the conversation, however, was the fact that gaiters come in different materials and can be worn in different ways, which results in different degrees of protection against the release of droplets depending on how the results are measured. A Duke University study, which unintentionally sparked the ruckus, looked at one layer of a particular polyester-spandex design using a novel contraption (the actual topic of the paper). When the researchers analyzed the spray emerging from the gaiter wearer’s mouth, the threads, as the team hypothesized, seemed to have broken up the larger droplets into smaller ones, potentially making them more easily inhaled by people around the wearer. However, other researchers, using more-conventional experimental approaches, have found that gaiters-especially when worn doubled over (as explained in this non-peer-reviewed preprint PDF) or, even better, with the addition of a paper towel (as described in a non-peer proof-of-concept study)-can be quite protective. As with regular cloth face masks, the key is to create multiple layers and a good seal. One disadvantage of wearing a gaiter is that removing it can be tricky. To do so without potentially contaminating yourself, slip your hands inside at the bottom edge so that you can use the back of your hands to stretch the fabric in opposite directions and lift the garment over and off your head. Wash your hands afterward. A face shield can protect your eyes and block big droplets from direct-to-the-face coughs and sneezes. Whether it blocks smaller droplets is a point of controversy. It doesn’t seal off the lower part of your face, after all, so theoretically droplets can drift in and out from under the shield. The CDC does not advise using shields in place of masks, nor do many doctors. However, as several experts pointed out in May, shields have some advantages over masks in particular situations, and certainly they provide added benefits when people wear them in addition to masks. Face shields may also be useful as extra protection for those who are wearing a cloth mask in other close-range situations.