Amid rising Covid-19 cases worldwide, the demand for N95 masks has once again skyrocketed, Andrew Jacobs writes for the New York Times—but many who try to purchase these masks online or from big box retailers have unknowingly been sold counterfeit or defective alternatives that have not been approved by U.S. regulators.
Source: Why are there still so many counterfeit N95 masks in the U.S.?
Some ramblings on this below. Need to summarize this in one pplace?
This is the role of government or thw HO or UN?: define a clear set of standards, perhaps 3, but ideally 2. It won’t be perfect, but it will be good enough. So much wasted effort & time & ink spilled on the details of masking, who’s mask is better,m proliferation of conterfits, but even a counterfit n95 is better than no mask. .
Something i wrote on BB, WHO-led effort to make 2 perhaps 3, mask levels. mask are too fucking confusing.
“One thing this pandemic has taught me: there’s a lot of confusion around masks and health. It should be simplified. Define two masks for general public use. Type 1 = Simple Cloth. Type 2 = N95. CDC sez “MONKEY-COVID-EBOLA-24 is a Pandemic Type 2. Level 2 masks now in effect.”
This simplicity immediately gets masking started at the start where it matters most. Massive stockpiles of these two types ensure availability. Public IP, so no royalties. And we can keep track of expiration dates to ensure they’re used up before going to waste, and to restock as required.”
I’ve probably said this elsewhere, but isn’t it time the WHO or UN define a simple standard for at most 3 different masks to match 3 different pandemic levels. With public IP so anyone can make ’em. And good testing to prevent counterfeiting. Maybe some sort of blockchain for authentication?
So much time, effort, headspace is being wasted on the fascinating details about masks. Which is awesome to read. I just want a simple system.
I fully expect this will be XKCDed.
