Thread by @ZiadFazel

#COVID19AB Video Thread

• Improving from Cloth Masks
• Fixing Blue Leakies™️
• Clearer Warnings about Vanch
• KN95 Respirators
• Disposable Elastomeric Respirators
• Why they are officially called masks, but new 🇨🇦 Standard coming
• Reusable Elastomeric Respirator

First, what is the difference between a Mask and a Respirator?

Why are the legitimate experts on COVID-19 and respiratory illnesses in general say that you must upgrade to a respirator?

What to look for?

I started with cloth masks in the first Wave, around March/April.

Here are the two types I used. I have not provided links to the vendors because I want you to have better, but there are good things to learn about Fit.

Filters I used with my cloth masks.

It is a good learning experience to share, because the lessons about Fit and Filtration carry forward into Respirators.

If you can't afford respirators, government should be supplying you. The cost-benefit for taxpayers is worth it.

Wrapping up the lessons on cloth masks & their filters.

Salespeople use this, but please look at the VALUE of a respirator, rather than PRICE. I don't drive by Starbucks to drop $5 on coffee every day, that I can just switch to respirators.

Against Omicron, Find a Way.

Blue Leakies™️

aka polypropylene 3-4 layer procedural masks (earloop) or surgical masks (head ties).

ASTM F2100 is best, but AHS has bought lesser, and subjected Health Care Workers I love to them.

Forces HCW to wear them exclusively.

#COVIDisAirborne

I'm going to get into the Vanch masks now.

Reminder that I am speaking as a citizen in a democracy, from bona fide belief, with evidence I believe to support my opinion.

Getting deeper into the Vanch masks.

I did a thread about this in April 2020, and shared this information with several healthcare leaders, unions at various levels, and managers at several facilities.

https://twitter.com/ZiadFazel/status/1253068076527915008?s=20

My thanks to @Dave_Khan and @RajBhardwajMD for helping me get the word out.

In my view AHS and Alberta Health responded to the concerns raised by unions and medical associations with deceptive information about this "PPE" to the joint Health & Safety Committee.

I raised this again in Nov 2020, and appreciate the courage of physicians to speak up too.

Disappointed there was no take-up by the NDP despite several efforts. I am not a member of any political party.

Given GoA deception, I needed the opposition.

https://twitter.com/FionaMattatall/status/1332839750063976449?s=20

Independent journalist @kim_siever did an excellent investigation into the Vanch masks in May 2020, showing:
• quality issues
• Vanch was not the manufacturer, but was laundering spot-market mani-pedi masks
• cronyism and over pricing

Digging deeper into Vanch's Failed Splash Resistance, aka Worker Protection from Bodily Fluids emitted by their Patient.

The Vanch masks failed this, and IMO AHS used more deceptive language to cover this up.

IMO, AHS knows their Vanch masks fail to provide the Splash Resistance their workers expect, but uses deceptive PPE disclosure to risk their lives on that too.

It's like saying condoms with pinholes meet some bogus standard for condoms with or without pinholes.

Summarizing the Vanch mask issues, primarily for engineers & OH&S specialists.

Happy to be politely corrected on this, w good sources, if I am mistaken.

@BarryHunt008 @caruzycki @DavidElfstrom @kprather88 @sameo416 @GosiaGasperoPhD @CPita3 @Bornforbarn @jasmith_yorku @JBuriak

@BarryHunt008 @caruzycki @DavidElfstrom @kprather88 @sameo416 @GosiaGasperoPhD @CPita3 @Bornforbarn @jasmith_yorku @JBuriak Rephrasing my Vanch warning for Health Care Workers

@DanielleLarivee @jvipondmd @PopAlberta @LeylaDAsadi @GermHunterMD @TehseenLadha @gilmcgowan @demandsbetter @RajBhardwajMD @plasercalgary @kwburak @noelgibney @Rea_Booker @drdagly @John1MD @zaidi71

@BarryHunt008 @caruzycki @DavidElfstrom @kprather88 @sameo416 @GosiaGasperoPhD @CPita3 @Bornforbarn @jasmith_yorku @JBuriak @DanielleLarivee @jvipondmd @PopAlberta @LeylaDAsadi @GermHunterMD @TehseenLadha @gilmcgowan @demandsbetter @RajBhardwajMD @plasercalgary @kwburak @noelgibney @Rea_Booker @drdagly @John1MD @zaidi71 Winding up on Blue Leakies: Vanch is worst.

I give advice here on Mask Fitters to make OTHER disposable procedural masks safer.

making.engr.wisc.edu/mask-fitter/

fixthemask.com

Above, I forgot the link to @kim_siever exposé on AHS and the Vanch Masks

kimsiever.ca/2020/05/15/wha…

@BarryHunt008 @caruzycki @DavidElfstrom @kprather88 @sameo416 @GosiaGasperoPhD @CPita3 @Bornforbarn @jasmith_yorku @JBuriak @DanielleLarivee @jvipondmd @PopAlberta @LeylaDAsadi @GermHunterMD @TehseenLadha @gilmcgowan @demandsbetter @RajBhardwajMD @plasercalgary @kwburak @noelgibney @Rea_Booker @drdagly @John1MD @zaidi71 @kim_siever Just a reminder that @PopAlberta did an excellent job here (as usual)
• experts who know muuch more than I do
• given #COVIDisAirborne, how to protect yourself
• ventilation, filtration, indoor v outdoor, PPE

Any discrepancy between what these experts say and what I say, I defer to them.

I'm a generalist, taking you on my own journey from cloth masks, through Blue Leakies™️, a frustrated dive into Vanch masks, and now into respirators.

Like the new bare minimum, KN95 respirator.

I'm also showing you the classical 3M N95 respirator, with the classic cup or dome design.

3M has other options which are more comfortable, and/or fit better, therefore making them more functional.

Pulling you further from masks to respirators, there are many companies outside and inside Canada (hi @CAPPEM2) that make N95 or N95-equivalent, or the emerging CSA standard.

cappem.ca

I've had a couple of conversations recently that informed my own purchasing decisions, FYI

https://twitter.com/ShawnaGofABPoli/status/1472407174072598528?s=20

https://twitter.com/micropainter/status/1472634661616566276?s=20

https://twitter.com/ZiadFazel/status/1473150423611498498?s=20

But I was most interested in a NanoMask, from @BarryHunt008's Prescientx
• partly because I have come to know & respect him
• partly because NanoMask is excellent, w full disclosure of test results

@ShawnaGofABPoli @feltford @trendless @LazarusLong13

prescientx.com/nano-mask

@BarryHunt008 @ShawnaGofABPoli @feltford @trendless @LazarusLong13 Check out the NanoMask seal (Fit)
and the low breathing resistance (Comfort & Function)
for the excellent filtration

So because of development in the 🇨🇦 CSA Respirator Standard and labs to certify products to it (see tweet above with the 3 twitter conversations about that)..

I get why NanoMask is ASTM Level 3 ++

Totally comfortable with its Fit + Filter + Function compared to KN95 or N95.

Now, if you've been doing the math with disposable Blue Leakies which you are getting for $0.50 or so (AHS pays $1.50 each for 40m over 2 years!) you think a $20 mask/respirator is a bad deal.

But the NanoMask lasts a lot longer. Especially if you have 2, and you rotate them.

I got my NanoMask Fri 10 Dec.
• First Sunday I wore it for 5 sweaty hours in library as I made 6 binders for work
• Have worn it 2 - 4 hours/day for groceries, LTC visits, etc until Tue 21 Dec
• Trying different model now

Still like new. I agree with @BarryHunt008's letter.

@BarryHunt008 Now, I have had my eye on the Prescientx Breathe mask (which I can call a respirator) that they're clearing out for a Heckuva deal.

$50 including 500 filters because inventory is being cleared out.

10 cents a day.

There's 1 Clear one left right now.

prescientx.com/shop/ols/produ…

@BarryHunt008 I mentioned companies in Canada or USA that retooled + invested heavily to make PPE.

Making ASTM F2100 masks or N95-equivalent respirators takes capital, access to good suppliers, guts, and technical skill.

Starting up in a pandemic, to save lives. 😇

https://twitter.com/ZiadFazel/status/1367246528444649477?s=20

@BarryHunt008 The Breathe Respirator has many wonderful traits:
• High Filtration and Low Breathing Resistance of NanoMask filters
• Wonderful fit of an industrial silicone respirator housing soft as a diving mask
• The harness to attach it to your head....not so good

@BarryHunt008 Not slamming the harness, because as I explained earlier, when governments and ID Docs:
• denied #COVIDisAirborne
• forced HCW to wear Blue Leakies™️
• told the public just distance 6 ft
• then finally cloth masks
• they killed business case for further product development

I just wanted to show the harness problem well enough to show:
• the solution was hanging right around my neck
• from my favourite cloth mask
• instead of trying to go ear loop + lanyard
• just go simple head tie
• with a FLAT work boot lace

marks.com/en/duracare-ke…

Some of you already own it but weren't sure about the harness; others were interested

@feltford @trendless @LazarusLong13 @GosiaGasperoPhD @LeylaDAsadi

Yesterday my sister bought the last Grey, and the 2nd last Clear. One she will give to this saint

https://twitter.com/ZiadFazel/status/1414698131845894144?s=20

So I'm sorry if I push demand past your remaining stock of filters, @BarryHunt008, or housings your supplier has left.

I just love the Breathe. It was worth me learning & fighting through 2:20 limit on Twitter videos, to show how to fix the harness, for existing & new owners.

This was my labour of love tonight.

Full use of my skills, and my sleep.

#Omicron will need us to learn, and apply to the very best, every tool in the shed to prevent our province/country/planet from being overrun by the nastiest mutation of #COVID19 yet.

Be safe, everyone.

Here are the 3 slides I was working with tonight to summarize the Vanch mask issues

albertahealthservices.ca/topics/Page170…

Links to the AHS website

albertahealthservices.ca/assets/info/pp…

albertahealthservices.ca/assets/news/nr…

Here's how @UnitedNurses were misled

https://twitter.com/UnitedNurses/status/1252623015528955905