March 28, 2022

HackADay: Used Facemasks Turned Into Rapid Antigen Tests With Injection Molding

HackADay: Used Facemasks Turned Into Rapid Antigen Tests With Injection Molding. “Here’s a little eye-opener for you: next time you’re taking a walk, cast your eyes to the ground for a bit and see how far you can go without spotting a carelessly discarded face mask. In our experience, it’s no more than a block or two, especially if you live near a school. Masks and other disposal artifacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have turned into a menace, and uncounted billions of the things will be clogging up landfills, waterways, and byways for decades to come. Unless they can be recycled into something useful, of course, like the plastic cases used for rapid antigen tests.”

COVID-19 0
December 30, 2021

Washington Post: First they ran short of PPE, then ventilators. Now, the shortage is hospital staff.

Washington Post: First they ran short of PPE, then ventilators. Now, the shortage is hospital staff.. “Doctors at this elite institution are confronting the same challenges as their colleagues everywhere: exhaustion, burnout and exasperation at patients who still refuse to mask up and get vaccinated. And that was before the arrival of omicron, the most transmissible variant yet, which is sickening staffers as well as patients and fueling workforce shortages. As a result, health-care systems nationwide are canceling elective procedures, turning away requests to take emergency medical services patients and grappling with workers calling in sick. Multiple states have deployed the National Guard to help support stressed hospitals, often by simply managing administrative tasks such as helping deliver food or cleaning dirty rooms.”

COVID-19 0
August 30, 2021

Ubergizmo: Researchers Create A Mask That Can Apparently Neutralize COVID-19

Ubergizmo: Researchers Create A Mask That Can Apparently Neutralize COVID-19. “… researchers in Mexico claim to have created a new type of face mask that they say has the ability to neutralize COVID-19. This is achieved by using silver and copper nanolayers weaved into the mask, where if the virus were to make its way into the mask or land on it, it should be neutralized. The researchers tested the mask by taking drops with the virus from COVID-19 positive patients and placed them onto the silver-copper film deposited into polypropylene.”

COVID-19 0
April 8, 2021

AP: Discarded masks litter beaches worldwide, threaten sea life

AP: Discarded masks litter beaches worldwide, threaten sea life. “Discarded masks and gloves started showing up on beaches not long after the virus began circulating widely last year, and continued to appear as quarantine-weary people sought an escape at the beach. In the second half of 2020, more than 107,000 items of PPE were collected by volunteers around the world according to the Ocean Conservancy group — a figure its members believe is a vast undercount of the year’s true totals.”

COVID-19 0
March 27, 2021

CNBC: Covid masks and hand sanitizer can get you a tax break, IRS says

CNBC: Covid masks and hand sanitizer can get you a tax break, IRS says. “Americans can get a tax break this filing season for masks, hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes and other personal protective equipment to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the IRS announced Friday. The tax code lets taxpayers deduct medical costs that exceed 7.5% of their adjusted gross income each year. The IRS is counting costs incurred for PPE as a medical expense that qualifies for the tax break.”

COVID-19 0
March 3, 2021

Buffalo Business First: ‘Good intentions’ leave Buffalo manufacturers, suppliers struggling to sell PPE stockpiles

Buffalo Business First: ‘Good intentions’ leave Buffalo manufacturers, suppliers struggling to sell PPE stockpiles. “Founded in 1985 to supply gloves and masks to the medical industry during the height of the HIV epidemic, MDS evolved over the years to supplying equipment to the industrial and construction industries. By early 2020, just 10% of business was coming from medical customers – a figure that skyrocketed to 90% almost overnight during the pandemic. Existing relationships with suppliers from around the world gave the company a secure and reliable supply of products. Yet now the company is sitting on a stockpile of N95s, isolation gowns and gloves. Google has restricted online advertising for PPE in a bid to stop counterfeiters and preserve supply for the health care industry.”

COVID-19 0
March 1, 2021

Ars Technica: Why N95 masks are still hard to get, even though production is up

Ars Technica: Why N95 masks are still hard to get, even though production is up. “Even though we’ve had more good vaccine news lately, COVID-19 in the US is still very much a widespread concern. We’re still going to need masks for many months to come. So why, a year into the pandemic, are good ones still so hard to find? The New York Times reports that there are dozens of small, US-based businesses that have pivoted to making medical-grade masks, but they can’t sell them to consumers because of policies put in place to protect supply chains at the beginning of the pandemic.”

COVID-19 0
February 27, 2021

AP: Government investigating massive counterfeit N95 mask scam

AP: Government investigating massive counterfeit N95 mask scam. “Federal authorities are investigating a massive counterfeit N95 mask operation in which fake 3M masks were sold in at least five states to hospitals, medical facilities and government agencies. The foreign-made knockoffs are becoming increasingly difficult to spot and could put health care workers at grave risk for the coronavirus.”

COVID-19 0
February 7, 2021

Washington Post: Biden harnesses Defense Production Act to speed vaccinations and production of protective equipment

Washington Post: Biden harnesses Defense Production Act to speed vaccinations and production of protective equipment. “The Biden administration announced a handful of initiatives Friday aimed at accelerating mass inoculations against the coronavirus and expanding production of rapid tests and surgical gloves to help control the pathogen. In the most immediate action, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved a request from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to deploy 1,110 troops to support vaccination sites. The first active-duty military personnel will arrive in California within the next 10 days, to begin operations around Feb. 15, said Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House’s coronavirus response team. The service members, the majority of whom will be medical personnel, are expected to be stationed at five FEMA megasites, two of which are in Oakland and east Los Angeles.”

COVID-19 0
February 7, 2021

Tulsa World: Oklahoma paid a Tulsa bar owner $2.1 million to deliver N95 masks. Only 10,000 came, so the state is suing.

Tulsa World: Oklahoma paid a Tulsa bar owner $2.1 million to deliver N95 masks. Only 10,000 came, so the state is suing.. “In March, at the start of the pandemic, Oklahoma health officials turned four times to a Tulsa piano bar owner who was promising he could get N95 masks from China in large amounts and quickly. They ordered more than 2 million of the highly sought after masks from his brand new company, PPE Supplies LLC. On the second order, they even paid him half upfront — $2.125 million — after he promised delivery in 10 days. Now, the owner, Casey Bradford, is accused of being a liar.”

COVID-19 0
November 26, 2020

Washington Post: Smallest health providers face biggest problem finding protective gear amid coronavirus surge

Washington Post: Smallest health providers face biggest problem finding protective gear amid coronavirus surge. “Most U.S. hospitals and health systems have, over the pandemic’s nine months, stitched together systems and improvisations to acquire masks, gowns, gloves and other personal protective equipment. Yet many small health-care and social-service settings continue to suffer from shortages they expect to grow worse.”

COVID-19 0

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