Visiting a medical office can be a risky business. Wearing a KN95 or N95 mask will protect. In Honolulu, Hawaii a patient was not allowed to enter a medical office wearing a KN95 mask and was handed a less secure surgical mask.
FFP2 in Europe, N95 in the United States, and KN95 masks in China are designed to protect you and others. This is based on science.
All of these masks are designed very similarly and have a filter value of about 95% to protect against the deadly Coronavirus and other oily particles.
In the United States, N95 masks are sometimes hard to come by, but KN95 are widely available by mail- order and equally protective. The KN95 mask is the Chinese version of N95 and is authorized by emergency order for use in the U.S.
Most N95 and KN95 masks show what many people think are openings or holes, so one is able to breathe easier. Without these so-called holes, the mask would stick to one’s face and make it very difficult to breathe. The punching holes are actually not openings but are covered with fine layers of melt-blown layers and truly protect against viruses and droplets.
A fabric cloth mask only protects against some drops but not against a virus. In many countries, cloth masks are no longer allowed, including in Germany.
In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to mislead Americans still recommending both fabric and surgical masks.
CDC specifically advises against buying an N95 or KN95 mask.
In Europe, N95 and KN95 type masks are the norms and the law. Health departments in many countries accept them as the only masks that can effectively protect people from COVID-19
“Last week my cardiologist in Honolulu told me to buy N95 or KN95 masks for the same reason, but asked not to be identified saying this.”, said Juergen Steinmetz, author of this article.
An elderly patient, and eTurboNews staff with diabetics was prevented to wear her KN95 mask at a Diagnostic Laboratory medical office in Honolulu today and given a lower grade surgical mask instead. The reasoning: Wholes in the KN95 mask.
Health care workers are also put in harm’s way. Diagnostic Laboratory Services, Inc. in Honolulu is allowing health care staff to wear cloth masks or surgical masks, knowing such masks can only protect others, if at all.
A spokesperson told eTurboNews today: “We rely on our patients to wear masks, so our staff is protected. So if our staff is also wearing a surgical mask it would protect our patients. The result is, patients and medical staff are protected, even without an N95 or KN95 mask.” This logic is dangerous and wrong. The spokesperson added: “The safety of our patients and staff is our highest priority.”
“Our hospital staff or nurses who test people for COVID-19 are getting an N95 or KN95 mask”, he explained.
The spokesperson worried that all 700 staff working for his company could get N95 or KN95 masks if the companies policy was changed.
KN95 masks are available in the millions and CDC gave its blessing: Under an emergency use authorization, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is working diligently to mitigate any potential shortages in the supply chain and taking action to assure health care personnel of the front lines have sufficient supplies of respiratory protective devices. The FDA concluded, based on the totality of scientific evidence available, that certain imported respirators that are not National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)-approved are appropriate to protect the public health or safety.
To hide this previous shortage, CDC in its “Guide to Masks” still misleads the American people in telling them to wear fabric masks or surgical masks and specifically advises against KN95 and N95. CDC well knows this to be untrue and dangerous for public health.
A new trend is to wear two masks instead of one. CDC has no objections but is still not recommending Americans to wear N95 or KN95 masks.
The United States has the highest outbreak of the deadly COVID-19 virus and the highest number of death. According to a CNN report, one American is dying every minute on Coronavirus.
Listen to the taped phone calls with health care spokespersons in today’s daily eTurboNews Travel Trend news session:
