True we both may not be health experts but taking the proper precautions is what everyone should do. JAMA and many other medical authorities have all come out and said that proper use of a N95 mask is the recommended level of respiratory protection for health care workers who are working with covid19 positive patients with a minimal 90 percent filtration efficiency. The KN95 unfortunately showed only between a 53-85 percent efficiency while surgical mask and ear loops mask only had an efficiency of 37-69 percent. One of my closest friends and former play partner is a dual certified CRNP-CRNA and has been on the front line out in California where she has been intubating positive covid19 patients in the hospital she works. Back when the pandemic started I reached out to her since I had questions. She gave me the same information she had access to. When I told her I had N95 masks she basically told me to save them and to use them but with an outer non-N95 ear loop or tie on mask as a over-mask which is her standard use protocol to preserve the N95 for a longer period. The one thing she told me that had me think was how some of her coworkers are doing a study using chlorhexidine gluconate to swab their nasal passages and using it to rinse their mouths since its an antiseptic used to kill micro-organisms to prevent infections. Whether the study shows it's effectiveness is hard to say.


Edited by Smiley (10/31/20 11:41 PM)