#COVID19AB Non-Medical Masks
Misrepresented as Medical Masks
From the outset, the Hinshaw/Lagrange Plan knowingly distributes Non-Medical Masks of such poor quality:
• Manufacturer does not recommend > 4 hours use
• Students must be issued 2 per day
Minister @AdrianaLaGrange claims "A medical-grade mask has been tested and meets international standards."
Let's see:
• Requirements definition & procurement spec
• Test results from independent lab (?) to those standards
• Assessment matrix of all options investigated
@AdrianaLaGrange Except for two specific "Surgical Face Masks", BYD admits their masks are non-medical, and do NOT meet the International Standards that define a Medical Mask.
These are the Standards Health Canada applies, and GoA USED TO respect Before Vanch (BV).
When I looked into Vanch Masks in April 2020, Health Canada could not investigate because it wasn't the Manufacturer/Exporter making false claims. They'd disclosed their failure to meet Medical Mask standards.
IFR Chlorine Mask fiasco is good precedent by which to judge Minister LaGrange's actions now:
• her staff all over it, especially a DM w TERRIBLE amnesia
• her only recollection: "high quality..right sizing..on time"
• No Transparency/Accountability
About 20 yrs ago, I was hired by Alberta Research Council as a team lead for a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell joint venture with a startup. It quickly became obvious as a scam, but the person most vested was my VP.
The Director was then Seconded to another program, and I reported directly to the VP. Who told me to never send him anything on this in writing.
(I kept doing it anyway, in my monthly reports to him).
The JV startup was running low on cash, and wanted to issue more shares. They put out a bunch of dishonest press releases, and I got sent for media training to tout the project publicly. I would not repeat the BS.
Media interviews were then scheduled for me to appear with an executive from the JV startup, and I refused. The Technology Commercialization Office, that was funding the whole project, also ran the PR Office and demanded an explanation. My VP told me he would fire me if I did.
I pulled an all-nighter, and sent a full report to both my VP and TCO VP, an hour before they were to meet to review the project.
Of course, my VP fired me. And of course, I reported it to Auditor General & Securities Commission, and I sued successfully for wrongful dismissal.
Moral of the story? Professional Engineers HAVE TO resist the organizational behaviour I see with these non-medical masks, to the point of being fired.
That was a $5m project. This is > 700K schoolchildren.
ICYMI, I just wanted to highlight this part of the Ethics Commissioner's investigation of the August 2020 last-minute purchases of masks for the Sep 2020 school year.
Dr Hinshaw is more involved in Alberta Education mask procurement than people think.
I have a copy of T/GDMDMA 0005-2020 Standard applying to BYD Children's Masks that Hinshaw & Lagrange are distributing to Alberta schoolchildren as Medical Masks.
"The filtration efficiency of the mask to non-oily particles should not be less than 80%."
After emails back-and-forth with @BYDCompany - the manufacturer of these FE2411 Non-Medical Single Use Cartoon Pattern Face Masks for Kids, I have filed a formal @HealthCanada Health Product Complaint.
I have more serious concerns related to standards compliance and 4-hour exposure limit. @BYDCompany would not release ANY test results or reports to me, even after I explained millions were being distributed to schoolchildren to be worn twice/day.
Sharing portions of emails.
Let's get this "international standards" 🐴💩 out of the way.
GDMDMA = Guangdong Medical Device Management Association. It is a voluntary industry association in Guangdong Province, an industrial province in SE China.
It is neither a national nor an international regulator.
I escalated to the Secretariat for GDMDMA cc: @BYDCompany. Neither responded.
It may just be Window Dressing for "world’s largest PPE face-mask plant..50m masks/day."
Would Microsoft dominate Seattle Area Operating System Developer Association (SAOSDA)?
@BYDCompany@GovCanHealth The voluntary industry standard @BYDCompany purports to meet is not difficult. (These masks don't meet Chinese National Standards.)
eg. 80% PFE < 95% PFE required by ASTM F2100.
So when they won't disclose lab reports for their own soft standard.....
ARTG 337182 is bigger:
• Importer "Trustee for DKT Family Trust" (Australian wholesaler)
• Did not provide compliance, safety, performance, quality... relevant supply information, including list of customers to whom they may have been distributed.
Australia is kinda an important market to a Chinese mask manufacturer.
Yet @BYDCompany importer did not provide needed disclosure to 🇦🇺 regulator, so had their surgical mask kicked out of medical use.
IIRC, AB Health claimed that YY/T 0969 Std was fine for Vanch.
@BYDCompany Time to wrap up. Brain tired = GIF parade.
Where were we with BYD's cartoon masks?
✅false claims by GoA's cartoon leaders the masks are "medical-grade"
✅resistance by BYD to disclose the lab test reports they confirmed they have
🔲 concerns about exposure limits for kids
@BYDCompany I don't buy BYD's explanation. I looked for WHO guidance they said it "seems to come from":
Nothing specific about 4 hours. That seems to be an exposure limit from biocompability testing. I need the depth of eg. @JBuriak@KevinHedges15@JenniferKShea
But I have no data to share with these experts:
• except my correspondence with @BYDCompany who will not give it to me
• their 🇦🇺importer apparently won't do that with their regulator
• they do not have regulatory approval in USA or Canada where we can maybe review files
@BYDCompany On masks for children: "WHO advises that people always consult and abide by local authorities on recommended practices in their area."
Ha! That would be @CMOH_Alberta and Education Minister @AdrianaLaGrange who are distributing these non-medical masks as "medical grade".
But I sense risk in my shallow research of specific 4-hr limits that force GoA to buy 2 masks/day for kids, which they falsely claim are medical.
@JBuriak@KevinHedges15@JenniferKShea@TehseenLadha@DrPeterNieman I combined:
• GoA's misrepresentations these masks are medical grade
• GoA history w IFR Chlorine Masks & Vanch Masks for HCW
• BYD's resistance to disclosing their lab tests & questionable behaviour w national regulators
• my Spidey Senses
And I saw too much risk.
Good night all.
This has been bothering me for two weeks, and I spent all afternoon on @GovCanHealth formal complaint, after little bits of work here & there in the evening this week.
I learned from the Vanch masks experience, but am open to polite advice if you have it.
At 5.05am, @GovCanHealth Central Triage Unit forwarded my complaint to Medical Devices section for consideration.
In stark contrast to @BYDCompany covering up the tests forcing its 4-hour exposure limit, Medicom provides a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) in the Technical Information for its product.
Anyone notice:
• until Fri 4 Feb, when @GovCanHealth acted on my complaint
• @CMOH_Alberta & Education Min @AdrianaLaGrange were still distributing 65.6m masks through @RicMcIver POC over 8 weeks
• using obviously false claim these are "medical-grade" masks for "added safety"
The article had 3 non-government experts who I have worked with/am working with, and one government statement which is demonstrably false.
I get that reporters are getting official statements on the record, which has lasting value, as well as giving the public fair balance.
But GoA statement was published on all channels with no sign of pushback. GoA is:
• distributing millions of masks to schools
• claiming they are medical-grade + tested to meet international standards
So I would expect an onus on them to provide more than a sound bite.
This "98% as effective as N95" claim is obvious 🐴💩, and any of the 3 experts interviewed in the story could have provided evidence to the contrary.
So I would at least like to see "We followed up, asking about A,B and C but as of press time did not receive a response."
The pattern:
• experts/parent/advocate with "passion" raise concerns
• government provides deceptive soundbite
• no sign of pushback/followup before story published
With a chronically deceptive government, and very little investigative reporting, there has to be better way.
CTV story was published 2 Jan, when we only knew GoA stated intent, not about the BYD masks so non-medical they have 4-hr exposure limit.
I became investigator & complained to regulator.
But the reporters I am speaking with now won't ask GoA for more than their sound bite.
ADULT-SIZE MASKS.
• Going to kids as young as Grade 3
• School boards & charter schools
• 177 x 95 mm
The Orpyx masks are the largest I've seen in this distribution:
Adult Blue Poly
• Orpyx 177 x 95
• Make 99 NonMedical 175 x 95 😱
Children's Masks
• BYD FE2411 145 x 95 😱
• Medicom Pediatric Masks 140 x 85
See Medicom's good explanations why children need smaller masks:
I don't have a concern w regulatory compliance of currently shipping Orpyx. Made in Calgary under an active Class I MDEL.
My concern is AB Education & CMOH distributing them to children too small for the mask.
• Grade 3?! They won't fit 8 & 9-yr-olds at all.
• Grade 6? Maybe.
Where they apparently sell "Kids ATSM Level 3 Medical Face Masks" [sic]:
• unknown qty or size
• purportedly made in Canada
• no description of materials or construction
They claim to sell adult medical masks. Note the sloppy descriptions:
• 2 masks say "Medical Level" but not which level
• 1 mask just says "Medical"
• 1 mask says "Level III Medical" when the right description should be "Level 3".
Crap supplier. Perfect for your kids, right?
Let's look at their best (?) mask
• at least the *website photo* shows individually wrapped
• filtration specs I don't believe
• box says Level 2; website says Level III and 3
• ASTM F2100 Table wrong in several places
I guess their "Made in Canada" stuff is made elsewhere in Canada.
Or it may really be imported from China.
Looks like Make 99 printed a box for a certain "individually wrapped" product, but couldn't get it, so they just substituted something blue that came in bulk bags of 50.
I'll be making a new complaint to @GovCanHealth about GoA "Medical Grade" & Make 99.
Tomorrow. Sleep now.
CMOH & Education Minister: "A medical-grade mask has been tested and meets international standards."
Make 99: "Wash hands thoroughly with soap & water for 1 minute."
Auditors require GoA/AHS/anyone to write down inventory to lower of cost or market value.
• In 2020/21, the Feds contributed $2b for COVID-19
• AHS spent $900m on supplies, "significant purchase commitments"for PPE, leaving $417m at 31 Mar 2021 yearend
Looking to 31 Mar 2022 yearend, there is likely MUCH more PPE inventory, much of it subject to huge write downs.
This plan to burn off 65.6m masks looks like a cynical strategy to minimize that:
• only BYD forces 2/day, not any other mask I've seen
• 19K people fudge factor
Look at the level of deception from the Premier's Office:
• Notice how the statement makes no mention of biocompatibility or exposure limits?
• It's like GoA knows about the 4-hr limit from BYD
IMHO, @BYDCompany is being deceptive about the 4-hour Exposure Limit:
• on its website, BYD discloses it under “WARNING ⚠️ Limitations of Use”
• on its package, BYD hides it on the opposite end of the box, under “Materials”.
I'm an engineer w decades in scientific & business due diligence, procurement incl Chinese contract manufacturers, and years of experience with how Kenney does things.
And this is hard for me to crack from the outside.
How does any parent know THIS is non-medical AND unsafe?!
Many, many parents are dependent on "medical masks" from the province, which GoA has told everyone are better than cloth masks.
Other families are giving them their BYD masks. They could circulate for months.
This story from Quebec daycares & schools gives an idea of problems caused when Gov ignores 4-hour exposure limit the manufacturer admits, and lies that the masks have been tested.
Tx @smbilodeau & Canadian Aerosol Transmission Coalition for the help.
This thorough April 2020 @VICENews article by @dnewhauser@keegan_hamilton details concerns with @BYDCompany fast shift into N95, KN95 and Medical Mask production, and California's US$1 billion purchase.
In Alberta, babies under 1 year old are getting clobbered by Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), and it is overloading our children's hospitals:
• Hospitalized at 36x the rate of average Albertan
• Hospital & ICU at 3x rate of COVID in babies under 1
Typical LaGrange-style quote in reporting by @JenLeeCBC:
"In a statement emailed to CBC News, a spokesperson said the hospital is seeing an increase in respiratory admissions, which "aligns with seasonal trends.""
Expecting mothers should speak with their family physician or obstretician (like @FionaMattatall) about getting vaccinated during their pregnancy to protect their newborns. (I'm not a doc)
RSV shots are $1000 each, but perhaps other immunizations.
Both last year and this year, peak weekly flu shots administered was in week 42:
• This yr, only 243,207
• Last yr, 330,264
Many of us are now off from school or work for the Xmas holidays. Good time to get vaccinated. It should help you for January return to school or work.
3-min video posted 31 Oct 2024 by Liricom & Plenary shows what they expect provincial taxpayers to build + operate for them between airport & "Grand Central Station".
Before I get into pros and cons, let me just help you figure out their bizarre colours:
🟧 for Calgary Airport Downtown Express track that is at grade or in the 80th Ave tunnel
🟦 Teal (close enough) for stations
🟨 for track that is elevated from Bow River near zoo to Crowchild
Why does it need to be elevated from south shore of Bow River near Zoo, to Downtown West End before Crowchild?
Because CPKC wouldn't let them stay parallel at grade though downtown. Needed to be elevated to not interfere with freight loading/unloading at grade.
When UCP claims their elevated track & station #GreenlineYYC design through Beltline into Downtown is better than tunnels, but🚩won't release a single rendering, others will.
😱
Visit @yycbeltline web page, where each image is labelled. You barely recognize the streets after.
@yycbeltline Beltline Neighbourhoods Association tries to recreate Dreeshen's claim that only one "non-driving lane" on 10 Av would be affected (after multi-year construction probably closes the whole street) by rendering only a single column for the track and two columns for station.
@yycbeltline They use structural designs from Sunalta, which is 15 m above ground, but have to render two columns straddling reduced 10 Ave to support Beltline station.
Sunalta station is supported by an enclosed building, with interior stairs, escalators & elevator.
Confirmation GoA's plan for Green Line into downtown is terrible:
• no press conf
• nowhere in press release do they state where it crosses the rail tracks, or meets 7 Ave
• only 1 high level map - no renderings or closeup on downtown
• no AECOM quote
@TheBreakdownAB @GregGinYYC @DuaneBratt @CWalcottYYC @jasmine_mian @JyotiGondek @cspotweet @AdamMacVicar @LiveWireCalgary @GreenLineYYC Rick Bell's "exclusive" claims the crossing into downtown is at 2nd Street SW, but I refuse to link to that propaganda. @LiveWireCalgary has always provided excellent, deep journalism on #GreenLine and they confirms the crossing AND the cheap blindside.
@TheBreakdownAB @GregGinYYC @DuaneBratt @CWalcottYYC @jasmine_mian @JyotiGondek @cspotweet @AdamMacVicar @LiveWireCalgary @GreenLineYYC Some quick work with Apple Maps 3D views shows crossing into downtown at 2 St SW requires:
• elevation over a circular ramp and vehicle bridge across the tracks to parkade
• crossing two Plus 15 pedways
• a third Plus 15 medway just north of 7 Ave
My concern about privacy, like everyone's email address shared with everyone else in the group, have been resolved with the oddly-named "See all event details" access permission, which doesn't even show the guest list.
But there are still other privacy concerns I want to check.
Obviously, the owner of the shared calendar would have to know the email addresses of the PFC members who want to subscribe to it.
I don't know if any one of the subscribers can see who the other subscribers are, or their email addresses.