Mask Respirator

Because of the shortage of N95 masks, surgical masks have been used. But they don't offer nearly the same protection.

Lisa Brosseau, ScD: "What we’re seeing is a lot of magical thinking. A lot of wishful thinking. Cloth masks are wishful thinking."

Lives are at stake and counterfeit N95 respirators make things worse for infection preventionists and others trying to care for COVID-19 patients. If you suspect that something being billed as an N95 is fake, report it to the CDC.

National Nurses United and the California Nurses Association, declared victory because hospital administrators “announced that health care workers throughout the Providence system will be issued N95 respirator masks to wear when caring for COVID positive or potentially COVID positive patients…,” according to a press release issued by the unions.

"We have to be comfortable with the fact that we have to reuse PPE for multiple patients. But one of the things they have to remember is those multiple patients all have the same illness. So, it’s not like we’re going to transfer multi-drug resistant organism to the next patient. Because we try not to use the same PPE for those situations."

There’s a limited number of volunteers vetting a seemingly unlimited amount of PPE.

There are nearly 10,000 STERRAD Sterilization machines in about 6,300 US hospitals, and the reprocessing times vary from 55 minutes, to 28 minutes, and 24 minutes, depending on which particular STERRAD machine is being used.

New Jersey-based Performance Supply LLC is accused of trying to sell the face masks at 500% to 600% above 3M's marked prices to New York City officials.

Investigators found greater SARS–CoV-2 contamination on the outer surface of the face masks than on the inner surfaces.

“It’s very terrifying to be flying the plane at the same time you’re building it,” said one young doctor.

N95 masks are in high demand but so are surgical masks, isolation gowns, thermometers and disinfecting wipes.

The machine can decontaminate the same respirator mask up to 20 times without degrading the mask’s performance.

According to the United States Conference of Mayors, cities need 28.5 million face masks, 24.4 million other pieces of PPE equipment, 7.9 million COVID-19 test kits, and 139,000 ventilators.

"Those of us who must go out into the world and have contact with people don’t have to panic if we find out that someone with the coronavirus has been in the same room or stood closer than we wanted for a moment." 

Ninety-seven percent of survey respondents have implemented conservation protocols for personal protective equipment.

The Defense Production Act gives the federal government broad authority to direct private companies to meet the needs of national defense.

One of Infection Control Today®’s Editorial Advisory Board members offers a quick to-do list.

In a conversation with Infection Control Today, Saskia v. Popescu, PhD, MPH, MA, CIC, a senior infection prevention epidemiologist in Phoenix, Arizona, discusses what it’s like for these frontline fighters.

Too often infection prevention work feels thankless, but the truth is that we are the backbone in this situation and now is the time that people really see that.

Already, two emergency room doctors in the United States are in critical condition with COVID-19.

Thanks to a reduction of imported PPE, 36% of hospital respondents expect large-scale PPE shortages, while 54% have imposed PPE conservation protocols.

WHO's Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, warns: “We can’t stop COVID-19 without protecting our health workers.”