Amid a looming shortage in equipment to protect health care workers against COVID-19, volunteers across the country are pitching in to cobble together improvised equipment and supplies.
“What we’re seeing is a four- to 10- times spike in demand in a major medical center in the Northeast. Normal usage of masks is about four times the normal volume,” says Steve Downey, group senior vice president of Vizient, the largest group purchasing organization for hospitals in the U.S.
On March 2, the FDA issued an order allowing N95 respirators made for industrial uses like construction and painting to be used in health care settings. N95 respirators are hard-domed masks that block tiny viruses from reaching the nose and mouth. In response, Downey says, one large building contractor shipped its entire stock of the specialized masks back to Lowe’s so they could be used in hospitals.
At Nebraska Medicine, which has a rare biocontainment unit to treat highly contagious patients, infectious disease experts haveto clean N95 masks. The masks are hung on lines with clothespins in the same room with glowing blue rods that emit UV radiation. The radiation kills any germs but maintains the masks’ structure.
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