This week we take a look the choice of masks, what works best and what the differences are between the different names and annotations of the higher grade filtration masks:
N95 –US standards (NIOSH approved)
KN95 – Chinese Standard
KF94 – South Korea Standard
As the CDC has said: any mask is better than no mask, and most importantly, the best mask that you wear is the one you will wear and the one you can keep on all day long and tolerate in public indoor settings
We review the different types of testing available, Rapid Diagnostic Tests and make sense of some of the information circulating that suggests that at home or rapid tests are not accurate and highlight that timing is key in the effectiveness of these tests that need to be used with the right clinical intentions in mind
COVID19 Testing Profile fro different Test Modalities
And finally we talk about the paper that has been circulating talking about cannabis and COVID19. It was inevitable we would see plenty of coverage of this study in the Journal of Natural Products: Cannabinoids Block Cellular Entry of SARS-CoV‐2 and the Emerging Variants
Key points here is that cannabis does not protect against COVID and the study while interesting was laboratory based and focused on some elements or ‘acids’ found in hemp plants.
We don’t yet know if even these compounds will actually do anything in the body since the tests were performed in the laboratory and what happens in a test tube does not always translate into what happens in animals or humans.
Weed does not stop COVID!
Raw Transcript
Nick van Terheyden
Hi, this is Dr. Nick on the incrementalist here with incremental insights for better business better health.
Fred Goldstein
And I’m Fred Goldstein with Accountable Health here helping employers payers and health care systems with their population health improvement programs. So Nick, one of the areas that gets constant attention is this issue of masks. And there are all kinds of masks. So perhaps you could simplify some of this for us and tell us what’s really going on with masks?
Nick van Terheyden
Yeah, so let’s keep it as simple as possible, I think we’re going to see some potential recommendations coming out that say you should upgrade the quality of your mask. How do you do that? Well, at the lowest end is a you know, wearing a thin piece of cloth. Then you’ve got cloth base masks. And then you have surgical masks, which are actually have a plastic layer in and there’s some electrostatic elements, we use those, we’ve used those in surgery for years and years. And then you get to these wearable variably called cane cane 95 and 95, or Cayenne, a Cayenne 95, which is the Chinese standard, and then the KF 94, which is the South Korean standard, they refer to the 95 being we filter out 95% of particles, those are the highest or not the highest. And you can get to respirators and all sorts of levels, but you know, something that you can buy over the counter. And from a quality standpoint, unfortunately, the Cayenne 95 is suffering from a lot of fake. So it can be very difficult. So you’re probably better with an N 95, which is the NIOSH US standard, or the KF 94. And the important thing that I keep emphasizing here is if you’re going to wear it, and you can smell anything, you’re not wearing it properly.
Fred Goldstein
Yeah, and I think it’s very true. I think if the KN 90 fives come over your ears, right, I believe. And then the N 90 fives come over the back of the neck in the top of your head with those two bands. And so those and the key, I guess, as you point out, is to really create a good seal. So you don’t have any air coming in the outside or through any vents or hole. And it’s all coming through the mask. And as you said, I believe that number times, you shouldn’t be able to smell certain things. If you’re wearing one of those correctly,
Nick van Terheyden
you should be able to smell a lot about anything. But yeah, pretty much I mean, if you can smell smoke, for instance, that’s how we test them routinely when we do the fit testing for K 90 or 95 in hospitals.
Fred Goldstein
So let me ask you, what do you wear,
Nick van Terheyden
I wear a cloth masks, it’s got multiple layers in it. And I have an n 95 or some n 95 that I might use if I was in a specific circumstance. And I have surgical masks occasionally just because they’re convenient to carry around. But mostly, I wear the cloth base mask
Fred Goldstein
interests you. So I wear a K 95 Most of the time, and when I’m really want to be cautious I weren’t in 95. Anytime I’m going to the grocery store, anywhere else one of those two is on, you know, and usually and I’ve started trying to wear a little bit higher level mask as I as I go around. But I think you’re right each person, as you said number times, wearing any form of mask is better than none. And obviously, the better a mask, the more protect,
Nick van Terheyden
you can wear is the one that you’re willing to wear and tolerate in as many settings as possible
Fred Goldstein
and put on correctly. Right. As you point out, which is a major issue. Yes.
Nick van Terheyden
No, no, this chin strap routine.
Fred Goldstein
So let’s move on to something else that’s getting a lot of interest these days, which is this rapid antigen testing Omicron, etc. What’s going on with that?
Nick van Terheyden
Yeah, so I this is important. We see a lot of people sort of antigen tests on accurate the, you know, not detecting appropriately. You know, there’s some good data, some decent research that says the antigen tests absolutely work and they work as designed the PCR test, or nucleic acid amplification test NAT for short, is the most accurate, but it’s technically challenging and you know that you’re having that when they put it into a medium that’s you know, something that the the swab gets inserted into, and then it gets transported somewhere. That’s all the transportation. The beauty of the antigen test is you can do it you can do it in a The low cow. And we’ve been using these rapid tests for all sorts of things. I’m pretty sure a lot of people listening will have had a pregnancy test, or have been involved in a pregnancy test. And that’s one of the rapid diagnostic tests. They’re very accurate. Do they come with some errors, some false negatives. So yes, but it’s really, really small in these instances. And the thing about the antigen testing is, it tests at a different point. So the PCR test can identify somebody when they’re pre symptomatic. But you’ve got to know to do that you’ve got to be screening. And there’s a delay, there are some rapid versions of that. So the ocular, I think, is the only rapid PCR tests that I’m aware of, I’m sure there are others. But you can’t do it unless you know to do and you’ve got a screen and it’s more expensive. Whereas the antigen test, as soon as you’ve got any onset of symptoms is going to show a positive. And it’s very quick and easy. You and I have both done them. We’ve done them for traveling. And you know, they should be used for the purpose. binax is one of the many brands, you know, there are several out there, obviously getting your hands on them as the key.
Fred Goldstein
And I believe just for those watching. There was an announcement yesterday by the the FDA or the CDC regarding one of those rapid antigen tests that recommended not using it’s not one of the major names I’d seen, but something to look up when you’re selecting those obviously. Right. And so the other big news that just kind of pooped into the air was marijuana, and COVID. What the heck is going on there?
Nick van Terheyden
What are you smoking? I called it as soon as that paper showed up in my feed. And that was before, everybody jumped into this gem of a study that essentially says cannabinoids blot the cellular function of SARS, cov. Two and the emerging variants. But unfortunately, of course, everybody jumps on this and people are trying to be, you know, I don’t know why, but we does not stop COVID This is in the laboratory. This is not about smoking as much weed I’m I’m protecting a by the way, smoking is a definite no, no, in terms of a risk, you know, potentially a dietary supplement, maybe. But actually, we really don’t know. And it reminds me a lot of the early work on hydroxychloroquine own where we saw it in the laboratory, but it didn’t translate into real world. So if you want to smoke, we maybe it’s legal in your state, maybe it’s not, but it’s not going to help you in terms of preventing COVID
Fred Goldstein
Well, it’s interesting to watch as each of these things can find out and get hit by social media as we know, and just explode onto the scene. So we’ll have to keep up with that one. And maybe over time, it’ll go from in vitro to in vivo, and they’ll know that this baby actually works. But there were a lot of steps between all that stuff.
Nick van Terheyden
Why wait, I just want to clear you’re gonna keep up with the weed one Fred is all of your your research driving,
Fred Goldstein
I’ll see what the headlights show it just stick with that right now it’s really important to look look deeper. And as they were pointed out in the in some of the articles about that, you know, the the actual agents that come from smoking it are different than what they were picking up in the in the in the experiments. And so there’s a long way to go before you would see anything like that that might show some improvement. So once again, as you look at this stuff, make sure you’re paying attention and understand a little bit more or ask some people ask your doctor something about this to get a better sense of it. So once again, Nick another fantastic week here. This one hopefully did not go up in smoke. This is Fred Goldstein with AcademyHealth thanks so much for joining us. If you’d like more information, please go to Accountable Health llc.com
Nick van Terheyden
And this is Dr. Nick on the incrementalist here with incremental insights for better business better health.
