Scholarship table
I just had a procedure in a hospital yesterday. Nurse said they get one mask a day. It did not look like an N95 mask. This hospital has an entire floor for covid patients.There was a scrubs vending machine in the lobby too. Nurses are the new teachers when it comes to supplies.
Those scrubs vending machines have been around forever. It's standard practice. Essentially you put dirty scrubs in and they give clean ones. It's a very safe and effective way to handle it.
Most coronavirus clusters at NC schools have been at private schools, which had been exempt from mask mandates for whatever reason.The governor says, OK that's enough. Masks are now required at such schools.https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/education/article247397165.html?ac_cid=DM331580&ac_bid=-1322971583
Scrubs machines are common and are used for all OR staff
Good to know. The fact that the staff gets one mask a day, a non N95 one at that, is disturbing.
She is not confused. It is that bad.
+10 Near impossible for medical professionals to get medical grade masks. In fact, I know of one shipment by a well-known medically provider, with an impeccable reputation turned out to be cheap knock-offs - not medically certified. There are problems in the supply chain.
color me weird, but i'd rather wear a double level 3 with a cheap knock off than share a mask with a stranger. we sterilize and change our nitrous oxide nose inserts between patients. we don't wash our light handles or suction tips, etc. hope they ain't sharing gloves
In normal times, no reputable hospital would remotely consider it either. Unfortunately, these are not normal times, and they are desperately short of PPE in many places.
color me weird, but i'd rather wear a double level 3 with a cheap knock off than share a mask with a stranger.
i understand gooo, but if it's "acceptable" to pretty much wear anything you can fashion into a "mask" and it is "mandated" to wear in order to be "safe", then strapping any form of cloth, with one or two level 3"s (which are in abundance) has got to be way more sanitary than sharing anything.
you can get cheap level 2 and/or 3's by the case! with the exception of medical grade n95's, it has been established that masks are only so effective. a couple of multi-ply paper towels are safer than sharing
i understand gooo, but if it's "acceptable" to pretty much wear anything you can fashion into a "mask" and it is "mandated" to wear in order to be "safe", then strapping any form of cloth, with one or two level 3"s (which are in abundance) has got to be way more sanitary than sharing anything. what if the co worker was assymptomatically covid positive and/or a carrier? this just does not make any sense to me at all. you can get cheap level 2 and/or 3's by the case! with the exception of medical grade n95's, it has been established that masks are only so effective. a couple of multi-ply paper towels are safer than sharing
My understanding is that hospitals are sterilizing N95s between uses. That should eliminate the question of cross-contamination between providers. I suspect this strategy is based on hospitals' assumptions that a reused (sterilized) N95 is still more effective than a fresh cloth mask. I don't know if this assumption is correct, but that seems to be their calculus.In any event, I do not believe any hospitals are allowing staff to share masks that haven't been sterilized between uses.Either way, the shortage of medical-grade PPE is leading hospitals to make very difficult choices...in this case, between sterilizing a medical-grade mask that wasn't meant to be sterilized, our using a non-medical-grade mask. Neither option is ideal, nor would either be used in normal times, but the choice is being made because of a severe shortage that should not exist.Trump should invoke the DPA now, so frontline workers don't have to make this impossible choice....
The Rockettes did just fine wearing a mask while performing in the Macy's Parade on Thanksgiving:https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/26/us/rockettes-macys-thanksgiving-parade-masks-trnd/index.html"If the Rockettes can wear a mask in the Macy's parade... you can wear one in Target for 10 minutes," wrote one Twitter user.