Dealing With N95 Mask Shortages

Several projects are addressing the problem of N95 mask shortages in hospitals due to the unfolding COVID-19 crisis. Two initiatives look into the options to safely reuse the masks and one connects hospitals with personal protective equipment (PPE) suppliers.

N95decon.org is a web portal for data-driven study of N95 filtering facepiece respirator decontamination. A team of 60 scientists and engineers, students and clinicians, drawn from universities and the private sector, unveiled the portal to explain how hospitals can decontaminate and reuse N95 masks to fight COVID-19. Building upon the scientific literature about mask decontamination, they created a set of best practices to decontaminate and reuse N95 masks.

Manu Prakash, an associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford who helped coordinate this project, admitted that “no perfect method for decontamination of N95 masks” exists. However, having the information about the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches is vital for emergency decision-making.