The recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation to use cloth face coverings to help slow the spread of COVID-19 has generated numerous how-to articles and videos. As academics who focus on personal protective equipment (PPE) research and development, we are concerned about the lack of information about two critical features of home mask…
We have reached a strange point in time when it is rare to go on a trip to the supermarket or walk through the park without seeing people wearing surgical-style face masks. The official advice about whether you should wear these mask varies from country to country, with the British government, for example, not advising…
Are face masks going to become like condoms — ubiquitous, sometimes fashionable, promoted with public service announcements? They should be, one virus researcher says, if early indications are correct in suggesting that Covid-19 is often spread by people who feel healthy and show no symptoms.David O’Connor, who studies viral disease at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,…
Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. Exposing contaminated N95 respirators to vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) or ultraviolet (UV) light appears to eliminate the SARS-CoV-2 virus from the material and preserve the integrity of the masks' fit for up to three uses, a National Institutes of Health (NIH)…
One of the most important pieces of safety gear for health care workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic is the N95 mask, designed to filter out 95 percent of airborne particles. But the surge of patients with the highly contagious disease has meant way more demand than supply. Now, scientists are exploring whether it’s possible to…
U.S.|Grand Juror in Breonna Taylor Case Says Deliberations Were MisrepresentedThe Kentucky attorney general’s office said it would release the panel’s recordings after a grand juror contended in a court filing that its discussions were inaccurately characterized.Breonna Taylor's family and the lawyer Ben Crump, right, said the charges a Kentucky grand jury agreed upon in the…
(John Finney Photography/Moment/Getty Images) An abnormally bad season of weather may have had a significant impact on the death toll from both World War I and the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, according to new research, with many more lives being lost due to torrential rain and plummeting temperatures. Through a detailed analysis of an ice…