COVID-19 doctors running out of masks? Try a bandanna, the CDC says
LA TimesA doctor wears a face mask as a precautionary measure against the spread of the new coronavirus as she waits for patients. “Their capability to protect is unknown.” It’s the latest tip from an increasingly beleaguered agency that continues to loosen safety guidelines, even as coronavirus infections rise. I’ve just been shocked at the CDC’s fall-down,” said Beth Hasenauer, a former pediatric oncology nurse in Monrovia, Calif., who plans to sew makeshift masks for endangered healthcare workers. They’re just an emergency stopgap measure.” U.S. health officials in the early days of the outbreak recommended that any medical worker treating a suspected coronavirus patient wear an N95 mask, which seals tightly around the nose and mouth and filters out about 95% of small airborne particles. So we want to channel that energy and salvage the healthcare system.” In an email sent Friday, Judy Garner, the vice dean for faculty affairs at USC’s Keck School of Medicine, told the faculty that workers who were at “greatest risk of exposure” were facing shortages.