[zbrozek]

Stanford hospital, for example, throws away one N95 per patient doctor visit. They are not sterilizing and reusing. So my friend who works there is using many dozens of them per day. It seems like they could come up with material-preserving procedures like sterilization, but they're not.

[prostheticvamp]

Because best data to date is that sterilization procedures damage the mask in ways that render it unsafe.

When someone comes up with data finding a safe way to do so, the masks won’t go in the trash. In the meantime, I’d you have the masks to spare, you -should- be using them safely. Masks are pointless if you use them in a way that will get you sick.

[klipt]

Says something about our society, though, that doctors at Stanford can use a mask per chat "just in case", while just across the bay at Oakland Kaiser nurses are working with multiple confirmed coronavirus patients on a single mask...

[lonelappde]

It's says that some people can't resist spreading rumors and jumping to conclusions. You have no idea how long standard docs are stretching masks.

[Thorrez]

zbrozek says his/her friend works at Stanford and says this. Is there a reason to doubt this?

[gwright]

What does it say?

It seems to me that pretty much every society has struggled to deal with this. Perhaps because it isn't something that has many reasonable direct analogues in our collective experience?

It is very easy to spot deficiencies after the fact. Much harder to spot them before.

[jonplackett]

It says that there's massive inequality?

[gwright]

I don't think it says that at all. You can't cherry pick two particular institutions and draw some sort of conclusion about "society". In this particular case it seems like the entire conclusion is based on nothing other than preconceived notions of what reactions "Stanford" and "Oakland" trigger in the reader. There doesn't seem to be any particular details about the actual situation at either location and how those institutions are managed.

[brodie]

If anything his comment reinforces negative stereotypes about the two regions. So many people in the Bay Area look down on Oakland like it’s a blighted disease-ridden wasteland and think the peninsula is some kind of haven for the rich and well off.

[munk-a]

For reference, one of those institutions is in Palo Alto and the other is in Oakland. While Oakland has been massively gentrified it's still much more affordable to live in compared with Palo Alto.

[ficklepickle]

This is untrue. Stanford Medicine released a study around March 22.

The TLDR is 70°C heat for 30 mins. Avoid alcohol, it kills the static charge in the mask fibres.

https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Fstanfordmedicine...

[prostheticvamp]

No, THAT’s untrue. Look at your own link. You can sterilize the mask to preserve its filtration ability, but no one has shown it maintains fit. A poorly fit N95 is no protection at all, which is why hc workers get formally fit tested when starting a new gig. Which is why That link makes “no one knows what it does to fit” one of its top line bulletpoints.

[barry-cotter]

> A poorly fit N95 is no protection at all

There’s no plausible mechanism of action for masks under which this is true. A properly fitted N95 will block 95% of particles which is less than the kind of hazmat spacesuit with face shield and positive air pressure you’d ideally be wearing if working with someone with Ebola or similar. Maybe it really is impossible to get proper fit on a reused mask. Perhaps it’s only as good as a normal surgical mask which blocks just under 90% of virus sized particles.

Every reduction in the amount of virus that gets into your lungs makes it less likely that you’ll get infected and if infected gives your immune system more time to ramp up. That’s why people care about viral load. Running through someone’s cough is less likely to kill you than being in a small poorly ventilated room with someone coughing uncontrollably for minutes at a time.

[ricardobeat]

Maybe someone like the CDC? https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/ppe-strategy/d...

[lonelappde]

You seem confused. This is a complicated topic. That CDC says sterilizing masks is not a safe practice, but in a crisis it's better than having no mask.

[ricardobeat]

> When someone comes up with data finding a safe way to do so

There's the data and very clear recommendations by the CDC on when and how to do it. Whats' the confusing part? I don't think anyone is suggesting this approach during non-crisis times.

[ksk]

>Because best data to date is that sterilization procedures damage the mask in ways that render it unsafe.

There are multiple sterilizing procedures, and multiple material compositions for masks. Which ones were you referring to?

[icebraining]

The problem is that there isn't a known safe procedure for sterilization. Universities are working on that: https://news.engin.umich.edu/2020/04/engineers-work-to-decon...

[bolasanibk]

Like this one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22680799

[favorited]

They're setting up one of these[0] in Boston, allowing hospitals to sterilize and reuse 80k masks / day. There's an article[1] in the Boston Globe about it, but I'm not sure what the paywall situation is there.

[0] https://www.battelle.org/inb/battelle-critical-care-decontam...

[1] https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/04/02/metro/boston-hospital...