Despite Trump Ouster virus not letting up NGOs urge better PPE



“First on the agenda in the post-Trump-menace era, the SARS2 menace must be addressed. Healthiness is more than medicine, it is more than our research data. It is the essence of a functional society applying sound practices for personal safety and well-being.” (Citing “Government officials wear N95 masks under cheap cloth rags“)

In an article on the multi-million-strong membership RINJ Women organization, a tersely-worded, occasionally angry message, the women doctors warn, “As we have said since January, wear an N-95 mask. SARS2 is in the air.”

On the subject of, “Shorting Hospital Workers their PPE“, the message from a recent global practitioner meeting was stark, and angry.


by Sharon Santiago and Micheal John


The Profound Quote we could not use from people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment and requested anonymity:For every bomb, missile, bullet or gun that was bought this year instead of supplying frontliners with PPE, some b*lls need to be kicked.”


N-95 Associated with massive reductions in virus transmission

According to Monique Deslaurier, the USA Executive Director of the The RINJ Foundation, RINJ officials heard from some very concerned and emotional members who work part time as volunteers for the organization and full time in hospitals in senior medical positions.

“The status of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in hospitals in the United States, for example, is deplorable. Surgeons and nurses are having to do rounds wearing nothing but spit barrier masks because they do not have N95 respirators which is what is indicated,” says the US director about the digital video meeting.

Current knowledge on the effectiveness of face masks to prevent SARS2 virus transmission from COVID-19, SARS, MERS and H1N1 is mostly limited to studies of surgical masks and N95 respirators.

The majority of existing studies are conducted in health care settings and focus on protection of the mask wearer as opposed to wearing a mask for the protection of others.

This distinction is vital since mask wearing for the general public occurs in non-clinical situations (home, public transport, shops, restaurants) and involves both protection of oneself but also others.

N95 respirators were included in the most recent systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Lancet.

Based on 29 studies, the authors concluded that the use of N95 respirators  were associated with massive reductions in virus transmission.

This is what proper PPE looks like. Various departments. Isolation gowns, booties, gloves, respiratory masks, goggles, face shields, headwear. This is what proper PPE looks like. Photo Courtesy The Nurses Without Borders

The women pulled no punches.

“It’s been a year almost. I want to say to all the officials, particularly and almost exclusively in North and South America; officials whose incompetence has compelled hospital medical workers to wear spit barriers instead of protective respirators; that you have killed thousands of medical workers. There is a certain place in hell for you. It’s been nearly a full year and you are not supplying proper PPE to medical workers? I will wear my N-95 when I squat and p*e on your grave. You are disgusting me and everyone else.”

In early Spring 2020 the American Association for Critical Care Nurses  said, “Providing adequate protection and lifesaving equipment is crucial to changing the course of the COVID-19 crisis.”

“The lack of availability of PPE represents a clear and present danger to nurses and other healthcare professionals caring for patients diagnosed with or suspected of having COVID-19,” said Megan Brunson, president of the AACN board of directors.

“The failure to provide the necessary PPE to nurses and our healthcare colleagues puts the entire healthcare system at risk,” Brunson said.

“Working without this equipment places nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists and others at an inordinately high risk to contract the virus.”

Since the AACN warning, more than ten thousand American medical practitioners have taken ill with the SARS2-induced disease and over 1000 have died.

According to Katie Alsop of RINJ, the problem is that there are warehouses full of high standards KN-95 masks, not knock offs but Department of Health inspected masks in China warehouses that the rest of the world has been relying on but because of the Donald Trump racist policies, copied throughout America and Canada and to a lesser degree in South America, have not been availed. Therefore medical workers in Canada and the United States in particular, are not properly equipped.

“At this point in time, any person who is a frontliner or a person of any level of risk including seniors and persons with any type of non-communicable chronic illness must be wearing an N95 mask when leaving home,” said Michele Francis who is a regional medical director in South America.

Government leaders must stop stealing money; stop exploiting their position; stop buying bombs; and start  paying attention to the needs of ordinary people,” added the medical practitioner.

“After confounding initial messaging initially, the World Health Organization changed its mask-wearing guidelines in the spring. But it is still a politicized message. N95 mask wearing is still for government officials.  Instead of making masks this year, governments around the world have spent $trillions of dollars on military equipment and consumables. Disgusting,” added Francis.

Watch the video while remembering that almost everywhere in the world there is community transmission of the disease.

Hopefully readers watch the foregoing video of the floundering World Health Organization which in May 2020 lost its most generous donor, the United States. The group is highly politicized and is widely untrusted. That’s unfortunate. Dr. Michael Ryan is one of the world’s foremost experts in infectious disease, and despite what anyone thinks, including the Ethiopian politician Professor Tedros, Ryan is in charge.

What must be realized, say doctors, is that preventing infection depends on banning the virus from entering a host. The normal method of entry is through the respiratory system, therefore protecting human respiratory systems is paramount to stopping the pandemic.

The theory that all risks can be taken until a vaccine is available is flawed. That will not work with a coronavirus, especially this one which is actually one of the milder variants. MERS is one example of how bad things can get, killing over 35% of infected persons. The human body has not been very good at fighting many viruses on its own. Humans still have not figured out HIV/HBV.

Here are some takeaways.


  1. In specific circumstances and settings in which procedures that generate aerosols are present, like coughing, laughing, singing, yelling, talking and breathing,  airborne transmission of the COVID-19 virus does occur during these aerosol generating procedures (AGPs) . Airborne particles are being detected on collectors placed around patients who are having difficulty breathing.
  2. Evidence suggests that much transmission of COVID19 is occurring from symptomatic people to others in close contact, when not wearing N95 masks and other appropriate PPE.
  3. Among symptomatic patients, viral RNA can be detected in samples weeks after the onset of illness, but viable virus was not found after day eight post onset of symptoms for mild patients, though this may be longer for severely ill patients.
  4. Read cited research for the first three paragraphs above.

Citing The Lancet / Respiratory Medicine:



In these following countries,  N-95 mask wearing
is less important while there is no community spread of COVID-19 except where pollution is an issue.

2 Dec 2024

Wear A Mask

In many regions where the RINJ Foundation operates women’s discrete shelters and clinics, it provides free N95 masks to patients and clients along with careful instructions on how to wear them. In these regions, health outcomes of mask wearing is well understood as being significantly in the plus side.

The message from extensive experience in areas where community transmission has been high, is clear. Wear a mask. 

“In one practice area where pollution is so bad that people without a mask must breathe over 50µg/m³ of toxic particulate, the medical workers have been wearing three-layer unique-weave cloth masks always for years, even indoors at work where visitors are coming and going and the doors are forever opening and closing,” notes Karinna Angeles.

“This is a cottage industry that is based on civil society experience. We have actually trained single moms to make a home-based business of sewing up these masks from discarded fabrics. They can make a living expedially in high-pollution regions,” she added.

WEAR IT AND WASH IT !!!!!!

“Please stress that these masks are mechanical traps for deadly particles,” notes the Filipino nurse practitioner who had worked in the University of Toronto hospital network for years.

“These three-fabric-layered unique weave masks have been tested in labs. There is plenty of variance because they do not rely on scientific principles like electrostatic capture as is the case of an N-95/N-99/KN95 but instead rely on the random criss-cross alignment of randomized filter patterns.”

“They get filthy,” she added. “Don’t ever touch the mask part, only touch the ear strings. When taking it off, put it directly into soapy water and suds it up with soap. Soap will break down the lipid part of the virus shell and break its membrane after a little while, about a minute or two in the soap.”

“Once when I was in Iraq where we had a lab in our small hospital, we put one of these things under a powerful microscope after being worn by a patient for a day. It was awful. I mean terrifying what was in there. And remember we first went to Syria and Iraq at the start of MERS so we were all scared out of our minds,” she added with a grimace.

Watch Video: November 6 World Health Organization (WHO) Briefing.


Look. In this graph are the latest figures for current active cases in the worst infected 25 countries/regions of the world.

 

 

Pandemic is not letting up but getting worse. These are active cases today. Source:  Civil Society Partners for COVID-19 Pandemic Solidarity (in Singapore)

The most infected region on Earth is the United States

The death rate in America from COVID-19 is not declining. It rem,ains constant per demographic profile. When older peole are infacted the death rate is higher. When people without comorbid illness are infected, the deth rate is lower. Today Americans are seeing the death rate for a period of time when daily infections were very low. The deaths (of about 2.6%) of the current spikes in infections will be seen starting in a month. Looka t this graph carefully.

The most infected region on Earth is the United States and the forecast is grim.

“A whole lot of hurt.” Half a million deaths by February. Another Half Million by April. Source:  Civil Society Partners for COVID-19 Pandemic Solidarity

I am with Dr. Robert Redfield. Wear a mask when you go out.