Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/1wYX4J_9dpo

To prevent resurgence of CoVid as business and school resume, take a page from our healthcare worker’s self-protection playbook.  Physicians at the University of Iowa encourage us to create PPE for ourselves without denying it to heroic professionals.

Equipped healthcare staff have CoVid infection rates a fraction of those in the general population despite constant exposure.  The Iowa investigators suggest that you can achieve similar protection by adding clear plastic face shields to your cloth masks.  The shields, made from acetate sheets you can buy at Staples and a hole punch, block 92-96% of virus.

Best news: face shields can be repeatedly cleaned and reused.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2765525

#covid #coronavirus #faceshield #mask #ppe

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/1wYX4J_9dpo

To prevent resurgence of CoVid as business and school resume, take a page from our healthcare worker’s self-protection playbook.  Physicians at the University of Iowa encourage us to create PPE for ourselves without denying it to heroic professionals.

Equipped healthcare staff have CoVid infection rates a fraction of those in the general population despite constant exposure.  The Iowa investigators suggest that you can achieve similar protection by adding clear plastic face shields to your cloth masks.  The shields, made from acetate sheets you can buy at Staples and a hole punch, block 92-96% of virus.

Best news: face shields can be repeatedly cleaned and reused.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2765525

#covid #coronavirus #faceshield #mask #ppe

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/h4N4_Do56qo

Heating N95 or KN95 masks to 170 ˚F for 30 minutes effectively disinfects, and you can do it up to 50 times without losing the mask’s CoVid filtration powers.  This conclusion comes from a study by 4C Air, a nanotechnology spinoff from Stanford University.

Investigators there compared various methods of cleaning medical grade masks including dry heating, steam, UV light, 75% alcohol, and chlorine bleach.  The alcohol and bleach both immediately destroyed the mask’s filtration capabilities.  Steam treatment degraded filtration function after 5 cycles of treatment.  The UVC treatment worked well for 10 cycles.

Healthcare workers and eventually all of us can recycle our N95 masks by oven heating.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.0c03597?goto=articleMetrics&ref=pdf

#covid #coronavirus #n95 #mask #disinfection #heating #uv

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/h4N4_Do56qo

Heating N95 or KN95 masks to 170 ˚F for 30 minutes effectively disinfects, and you can do it up to 50 times without losing the mask’s CoVid filtration powers.  This conclusion comes from a study by 4C Air, a nanotechnology spinoff from Stanford University.

Investigators there compared various methods of cleaning medical grade masks including dry heating, steam, UV light, 75% alcohol, and chlorine bleach.  The alcohol and bleach both immediately destroyed the mask’s filtration capabilities.  Steam treatment degraded filtration function after 5 cycles of treatment.  The UVC treatment worked well for 10 cycles.

Healthcare workers and eventually all of us can recycle our N95 masks by oven heating.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.0c03597?goto=articleMetrics&ref=pdf

#covid #coronavirus #n95 #mask #disinfection #heating #uv

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/oIu612tz3DI

Asthma under active treatment may help recovery from CoVid19.  Case series from central China regions and New York City, two epicenters of the pandemic, raise questions about the CDC’s designation of asthma as a complicating factor for CoVid.

Asthma patients with CoVid have no higher hospitalization rates than than non-asthmatics.  In Wuhan, 5% of people have asthma but only 1% of those hospitalized with CoVid have it.  Ten percent of New Yorkers are asthmatics, but they are under-represented among those hospitalized with the virus.

Asthma or its treatment may be protective.  Asthmatics seem to less ACE2, the CoVid magnet, in their lungs.  The inhaled steroids they use may suppress the cytokine storm.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/86323

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/asthma.html

#covid #coronavirus #asthma #steroids #ace2

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/oIu612tz3DI

Asthma under active treatment may help recovery from CoVid19.  Case series from central China regions and New York City, two epicenters of the pandemic, raise questions about the CDC’s designation of asthma as a complicating factor for CoVid.

Asthma patients with CoVid have no higher hospitalization rates than than non-asthmatics.  In Wuhan, 5% of people have asthma but only 1% of those hospitalized with CoVid have it.  Ten percent of New Yorkers are asthmatics, but they are under-represented among those hospitalized with the virus.

Asthma or its treatment may be protective.  Asthmatics seem to less ACE2, the CoVid magnet, in their lungs.  The inhaled steroids they use may suppress the cytokine storm.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/86323

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/asthma.html

#covid #coronavirus #asthma #steroids #ace2

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/Ks_V67XF_m0

Most women with the novel coronavirus can successfully deliver CoVid negative babies.  This according to a Indian meta-analysis of 50 case series that studied 387 women who delivered 391 babies pre-published on the medrixiv.org pre-print web site.  Ninety-five percent contracted the viral disease during their third trimester.

Ninety-six percent of the mothers had x-ray diagnosed pneumonia, and 11% of women required mechanical ventilation.  There was a 3% maternal death rate.  Eighty percent were c-section deliveries.  

Neonatal CoVid positivity, that is vertical transmission, was 8%. There were 25% pre-term births.  Only 8% developed respiratory distress syndrome.  Stillbirths represented 1.5% and 1% of the neonates sadly died. 

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.11.20062356v2.full.pdf

#covid #coronavirus #pregnancy #verticaltransmission

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/Ks_V67XF_m0

Most women with the novel coronavirus can successfully deliver CoVid negative babies.  This according to a Indian meta-analysis of 50 case series that studied 387 women who delivered 391 babies pre-published on the medrixiv.org pre-print web site.  Ninety-five percent contracted the viral disease during their third trimester.

Ninety-six percent of the mothers had x-ray diagnosed pneumonia, and 11% of women required mechanical ventilation.  There was a 3% maternal death rate.  Eighty percent were c-section deliveries.  

Neonatal CoVid positivity, that is vertical transmission, was 8%. There were 25% pre-term births.  Only 8% developed respiratory distress syndrome.  Stillbirths represented 1.5% and 1% of the neonates sadly died. 

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.11.20062356v2.full.pdf

#covid #coronavirus #pregnancy #verticaltransmission

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/ciFbsQ2h9Ts

The Fully Popped Company is recalling Poppin’ Cobs 10 pack Microwave Popcorn.  Their brown paper bags can catch fire in the microwave leading to burns.   This product has been sold at Uncommon Goods Stores in Brooklyn, NY.  Do not use this product, and return it to the point of purchase.  For more information, contact Fully Popped at 1-866-767-2627.

https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2020/fully-popped-recalls-poppin-cobs-10-pack-microwave-popcorn-due-to-fire-and-burn-hazards

#recall #popcorn #poppincobs #fire #burns

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/ciFbsQ2h9Ts

The Fully Popped Company is recalling Poppin’ Cobs 10 pack Microwave Popcorn.  Their brown paper bags can catch fire in the microwave leading to burns.   This product has been sold at Uncommon Goods Stores in Brooklyn, NY.  Do not use this product, and return it to the point of purchase.  For more information, contact Fully Popped at 1-866-767-2627.

https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2020/fully-popped-recalls-poppin-cobs-10-pack-microwave-popcorn-due-to-fire-and-burn-hazards

#recall #popcorn #poppincobs #fire #burns