You saw that CDC is considering issuing a guideline recommending high-efficiency respirators? I've been telling people I know to stock up, because supply will dry up just like toilet paper and chicken did in 2020 (which is to say, temporarily).
Folks should be aware, there are lots of counterfeit respirators around, especially KN95 and N95. According to tests by Aaron Collins, you can pretty much count on any KF94 mask out of South Korea--just confirm it was made in SK. Collins publishes his test data:
Hi Dr. Finfer--Thanks for letting me know. It wasn't paywalled for me yesterday, and I'm not an SF Chronicle subscriber, so I now find it is paywalled for me as well. Maybe I had access because of how it was linked to me. I'll never know. Regardless, I remember the key points which stuck out for me:
Reuse of these masks is possible, but it does have its limits. If the mask starts to visibly degrade, or if it becomes markedly harder to breathe through, it's time to discard it. Masks should be rotated between uses, and not worn multiple days in a row. Instead it is better to have a few masks, and perhaps label or number them by the day--some readers also suggested this.
Imagining that each mask gets 5 uses, if you have 1 mask for every day of the week, that's 7 masks every month at most, so that really would be an economical approach. I suspect more than 5 uses are possible, but probably not too many more. This is probably also dependent upon the amount the mask is worn on each use. I tend to wear my masks no more than 1-4 hours at a time, but I am fortunate to work from home and only need to go outside for short trips. For people working daily at an office, the masks would probably need to be replaced more frequently than mine need to be.
I think early on the CDC was advising healthcare professionals to let used masks sit in a paper bag for 24 hours before reuse. I think that was to help them dry out. I think letting them sit anywhere between 24 and 72 hours between uses would be a good idea.
You saw that CDC is considering issuing a guideline recommending high-efficiency respirators? I've been telling people I know to stock up, because supply will dry up just like toilet paper and chicken did in 2020 (which is to say, temporarily).
Folks should be aware, there are lots of counterfeit respirators around, especially KN95 and N95. According to tests by Aaron Collins, you can pretty much count on any KF94 mask out of South Korea--just confirm it was made in SK. Collins publishes his test data:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eE2BERAvRzs28kG87ft3a27FS9-gHvdC
CDC tips on spotting counterfeit N95s:
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/usernotices/AdditionalTips.html
Have you heard anything about cannabinoids and SARS-CoV2? - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35007072/
It's new to me, but this is very far from human research. Hard to tell if it would bear out in real clinical experience.
The article about reusing N95 respirators is paywalled. Could you summarize?
Hi Dr. Finfer--Thanks for letting me know. It wasn't paywalled for me yesterday, and I'm not an SF Chronicle subscriber, so I now find it is paywalled for me as well. Maybe I had access because of how it was linked to me. I'll never know. Regardless, I remember the key points which stuck out for me:
Reuse of these masks is possible, but it does have its limits. If the mask starts to visibly degrade, or if it becomes markedly harder to breathe through, it's time to discard it. Masks should be rotated between uses, and not worn multiple days in a row. Instead it is better to have a few masks, and perhaps label or number them by the day--some readers also suggested this.
Imagining that each mask gets 5 uses, if you have 1 mask for every day of the week, that's 7 masks every month at most, so that really would be an economical approach. I suspect more than 5 uses are possible, but probably not too many more. This is probably also dependent upon the amount the mask is worn on each use. I tend to wear my masks no more than 1-4 hours at a time, but I am fortunate to work from home and only need to go outside for short trips. For people working daily at an office, the masks would probably need to be replaced more frequently than mine need to be.
I think early on the CDC was advising healthcare professionals to let used masks sit in a paper bag for 24 hours before reuse. I think that was to help them dry out. I think letting them sit anywhere between 24 and 72 hours between uses would be a good idea.