Posted on 03/31/2020 11:26:27 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
As hospitals around the country desperately seek N95 respirator masks to protect health care workers treating COVID-19 patients, the federal government has blocked imports of what might be the world’s most abundant alternative.
That mask is designed to filter out at least 95% of particles that are 0.3 microns or larger in size — the same measure used for the scarce N95 mask. Like the N95, it fits closely around the nose and mouth, creating a seal that decreases the risk of infection. And the Centers for Disease Control has said it’s as effective as N95, which is certified under US testing standards. But this second type of mask, called the KN95, complies with slightly different norms and is made in factories that have not been certified by the US government.
By law, masks, along with most medical devices, can’t be imported or sold in the United States without the Food and Drug Administration’s say-so. Last week, to ease the national shortfall of protective gear, the FDA issued an emergency authorization for non-N95 respirators that had been certified by five foreign countries as well as the European Union. It conspicuously left the KN95 masks out of the emergency authorization.
The omission was all the more startling because in late February the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that KN95 masks were one of numerous “suitable alternatives” to N95 masks “when supplies are short.”
The FDA did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
A significant majority of all respirator masks, including both the N95 and KN95, are manufactured in China. During the height of that country’s outbreak, China restricted exports of virtually all respirator masks, keeping them for domestic use. As that country’s infection numbers have slowed it has eased those restrictions, but now the US must compete with
(Excerpt) Read more at buzzfeednews.com ...
And then of course there is this:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3830456/posts
I’m so glad we are all pulling together. It is just so heart warming.
I’m so proud to be an Armenian.
Well, I guess that Trump’s ass kicking over there was not fully effective.
Trump doesn’t have all day to spend in the halls of the FDA.
Probably best to just burn it down at this point.
The Netherlands has recalled 600,000 coronavirus face masks imported from China after discovering they were faulty
This is a Chinese sponsored “article”.
Not so sure we should be taking “imported” masks:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3830267/posts
This is A propaganda it piece.....so why post it?
https://mobile.twitter.com/PhdParody/status/1244447950199234560
When the fire in China is raging out of control you can always count on their enablers in the USA to come to their rescue. Countries around the world are finding that Chinese “help” is doing more harm than good and yet people keep pushing to get more of their crap into our country.
Unless I missed it, that article doesn’t say exactly where we
refused masks from.
If it’s China, there’s damn good reason for refusing them.
They’re defective.
Look folks, the FDA causes problems and we all know it, but
it’s pointless to trash them for something that may be
reasoned.
If I missed something there skimming over the article,
please point it out.
Bookmark
Chinese are the slipperiest snakes on the planet.
Chinese Infiltrator buys 1000s of masks from Home Depot and sends them to China
KN95 is a China standard. Why would we want such masks when the virus originated there and China tends to cut corners?
I’m not using any mask marked KN95.
wow. i’m “learning” so much about masks tonight.
one posts says that the demand is so high globally and we have many millions of masks domestically produced that we’re selling mostly to high bidding panicked foreigners who just can’t get enough masks (see the link in the above comment).
this one says foreigners got masks and they are trying to sell them to US, but we won’t even buy their equivalent N95 masks because...? this even though the other post says we are desperate to buy them but can’t get the money out fast enough to beat out desperate foreigners in the mask market.
what to make of it all?
[[As hospitals around the country desperately seek N95 respirator masks to protect health care workers treating COVID-19]]
But wait- we’re told masks, and gloves do nothing to prevent getting the virus
The Chinese are shipping out faulty masks. Just ask Ukrsine and aspain and UK
We are mfg them at home now
[I said awhile back, once China gets even close to a rebound they’ll make certain they position themselves to be the hero’s (cha ching) to other nations by helping them out.
Chinese are the slipperiest snakes on the planet. ]
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. We need to keep Russia and China bottled up so they can only expand their territory at each other’s expense. And if it gets to the point that they annihilate each other in a nuclear exchange? That’s too bad.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.