And for anyone else working with Covid patients, until a month ago, a surgical mask was considered sufficient. For over a year, international and US nurse union leaders have called for health workers caring for possible or confirmed Covid patients to have the highest level of protection, including N95 masks. The guidelines still say a worker would not be considered “exposed” to Covid-19 after caring for a sick Covid patient while wearing a surgical mask. Yet the update came after nearly 3,500 US healthcare workers had already died of Covid, as documented by the Guardian/KHN in the Lost on the Frontline project. Yet studies of Covid patients in early summer began to show that peak contagion occurred days earlier.

Source: The Guardian March 12, 2021 13:52 UTC