Attention: Avoid Chinese KN95 masks

So, as I expected, an independent organization put the Chinese KN95 masks to test, supposedly able to filter just as much as a NIOSH-approved N95, and they failed miserably, with 70% of them failing to make the 95% threshold. Why am I not surprised? These masks should be banned from the American market.

https://assets.ecri.org/PDF/COVID-19-Resource-Center/COVID-N95-Mask-Testing-Alert.pdf

Like I've been saying, do verify that you're getting a NIOSH N95 by looking for the maker's certification (the source above, like my previous posting, also teaches you how to get to the list of certified makers) and do not wear KN95s. While some KN95s made in South Korea apparently are good, it's hard to even know if the ones sold here, supposedly from there, are legitimate or counterfeit.

It's very unfortunate that the FDA has issued an emergency authorization for these KN95 to be used in healthcare, due to the shortage of legitimate N95s.

We were supposed to have 300 million domestically-made N95s by September. We aren't even close, with less than one third of it:

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-promis...y-september-he-isnt-even-close-183019656.html

Still, if you are persistent, you can still find them. Work your way from the CDC's list of makers, click on the makers' websites, and see if they have them in stock and do direct sales to the general public (some do).

 

By the way, there is no such thing as a NIOSH-certified N95 respirator with ear loops. If you see ear loops in a mask advertised as N95, it's a fake. ALL NIOSH-certified legitimate N95s, no exceptions, have headbands rather than ear loops.

 

Sadly, I am not surprised by this at all. I was STUNNED when it was reported that we were waiting on masks from China. That seemed odd especially when there were ramblings about the virus being intentionally released. I am not a true-blue conspiracy theorists by any stretch of the imagination, but I've never felt *okay* with the US accepting any kind of help from China until we can get this all sorted.

 

This is arguably the best article for the lay public ever written about masks. It contains a good explanation of the brownian motion issue that allows masks to trap and filter out the coronavirus, contrary to the idea that masks don't filter out the virus because it is too small. I've been saying this here over and over but it is nice to have it all explained in an easy-to-read and interesting article. Highly recommended although with flaws (the author seems to believe in the KN95 standard and as noticed above, we shouldn't trust those masks).

https://fastlifehacks.com/n95-vs-ffp/#Can_Surgical_Masks_Filter_the_Coronavirus