🧵 So I have contacted @3M a # of times regarding a serious safety issue. Many users have experienced catastrophic failure w/ 9205 masks. An #N95 fail miduse is literally life threatening in professional situations. Why has @NIOSH not addressed this? It’s a simple fix. #HCWs
I have reported the 9205 design flaw & so have numerous other practitioners. Why hasn’t @NIOSH or @OSHA_DOL acted?They have know that these break mid use, exposing us to dangerous pathogens. Yet @3M can’t seem to do the right thing & use braided elastic exclusively like the 9210!
It would be one thing if @3M weren’t aware. But they are! I have been trying for a year to get this flaw fixed. Dozens of others reported the SAME problem on my tweet about this last night. That’s a SINGLE tweet. Yet many lives are put at risk? #ClassActionLawsuits anyone? #3M
I am hopeful that someone here has connections @NBCNews@andersoncooper@frontlinepbs@CNN@MSNBC@maddow because this is just wrong. I have previously been on Frontline for Infectious Disease related topics & am happy to fight the good fight here! #BeTheChange you want in the 🌎
@DrEricDing can you possibly retweet this to your feed? It’s so frustrating that we are being needlessly put at greater risk. What? For a fraction of a cent in profit?
So I want to explain some terms today & put things in perspective. You hear the term Ro or R naught. What it is is the measure of an average of how many people 1 infected person spreads a disease to. Covid was originally about R2.4, it has increased to an astounding R12+ with BA2
What does this MEAN? This means that the virus is getting BETTER at spreading with each wave. Improving the ability to infect us. What can happen next is a mutation increasing mortality, or the percentage of people it kills. Fun times! #CovidIsntOverplus.maths.org/content/epidem…
Unlike other viruses #COVID19 has the unique ability to spread before you even have symptoms. In other words this virus could have a 100% mortality rate & it wouldn’t matter. It would continue to spread. As it has already spread before it kills its host. Which is us. #MaskUp
I promised I would provide a way to calculate room air exchange, using a simple MERV-13 filter & a box fan. The sweet spot seems to be 6 exchanges per hour. This means all the air in the room is moved through the filter 6 times in 1 hour. 1/6 #ProtectHCWs#ProtectKids#Covid#BA2
First we need to get the volume of a room. It doesn’t need to be perfect! But note units are important. We are using feet/inches here. Use this calculator & input the measurements, A, B, & C as shown in the graphic below. Order is NOT important 2/6 #Filtervcalc.com/wiki/KurtHeckm…
I found a company that did calculations using a box fan on high speed & MERV-13 filters of different depths. The thicker the filter the BETTER the air flow! Strange but true. Note I added the Air Volume based on a 20” square box fan. 3/6 #N95#BoxFanFiltertexairfilters.com/how-a-merv-13-…
I want to share an analogy & call to #Hospitals to #ProtectHCWs. 2+ years yet hospitals leave workers open to PREVENTABLE death & disability. They need to held to task & REQUIRED to properly & fully protect their workers. Please join me & share this. #HCWs#Covid#LongCovid (1/3)
Providing P100 respirators, increasing proper indoor air filtration, & testing workers regularly will help attract & retain staff. In addition to it being the RIGHT THING TO DO! Questions? Contact me #DoTheRightThing#LegislateProtection#ProtectHCWs#Nurses#ProtectRNs (3/3)
Let me tell you a story. By Jan 7, 2020 I knew this was airborne based on the spread occurring in China. By the 21st I had calculated an Ro of 2.4 (turned out to be pretty damned accurate). By the 23rd I called on my fellow healthcare professionals to ensure they had N95s
Or better yet P100 respirators. Then the backlash started. On the 27th I was openly mocked online by an ID doc I had worked with. It snowballed. I was trying to get anyone to listen. I was treated like I was nuts. All I was advising was to stock up on PPE & be prepared
I advised that we figure out a system for increasing mask longevity/reuse at my hospital system. I was dismissed as “reactionary”. The ICU attending & ID MDs went on international vacations in February & March. The hospital admin ignored this. I started posting videos on PPE
I think it’s time to revisit masking with #BA2 & how contagious it is. I am upgrading my recommendations to a P100 @3M respirator. They are less likely to suffer structural damage, meaning I have had them in use for 1 year at a time. That 100 is for 100% an N95 is 95% blocking
Note do NOT use @amazon they have a huge issue with #CounterfeitMasks. The @US_FDA doesn’t seem to be doing their job & cracking down while Bezos lounges on his yacht. I have samples of counterfeit 3M masks I bought off of Amazon. I confirmed with 3M DIRECTLY. So this is serious
This isn’t hearsay but actually provable. Amazon hides behind “tHeY aRE iDepEnDanT coTrAcTOrS” while they rake in that sweet pandemic cash. I recommend you order from @HomeDepot as they buy directly from 3M. I wish I had a better solution. #MaskUp#P100Masks#CovidIsNotOver
I have been asked a number of great questions! So let’s go through each point of my “Care & Feeding of an #N95#Mask”. Bending or crumbling breaks apart the polypropylene fiber bonds, the magic fiber that filters out & traps the virus using electrostatic charge. @DrEricDing 1/12
Electrostatic charge is like a magnet for the virus. #N95 masks do not rely on layers to filter. 90% of their viral filtering ability is due to this electrostatic charge! If you damage this charge the masks become about as effective as a cloth mask. 2/12 nature.com/articles/d4158…
Washing these masks is destroying them. The agitation breaks apart the polypropylene bonds, opening up the filter, it also permanently destroys the ability for the polypropylene to maintain the electrostatic charge. If they are soiled, please dispose. 3/12