Research carried out in India’s commercial capital, the packed city of Mumbai, found that more than half of the residents of the slums examined in three areas of the city tested positive for antibodies to the coronavirus. The survey showed that 57% of the people living in these densely populated areas may now be immune […]
Is there really a scientific consensus about wearing masks in the Covid-19 pandemic? How much of a help are masks in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic? Absolutely essential, it seems, to New Yorkers. A woman who failed to sport a mask sparked hysteria in a Staten Island supermarket. Other shoppers started shrieking at the modern leper to […]
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak we’ve been hearing more and more in the news about Taiwan, a small island nation about 200 km off the south-eastern coast of mainland China. Mostly we’ve been hearing about the geopolitical significance of Taiwan, its history with the Communist Party of China, and the failure of the […]
The Taiwanese community in Ireland has donated a substantial amount of PPE to Irish nursing homes and other long-term care facilities after a fundraising campaign carried out by the Taiwan Ireland Association. Nursing homes now account for roughly 60 percent of virus-related deaths in Ireland and there have been growing concerns about shortages of PPE […]
Every now and then, and especially in distressed times such as these, it’s good to spotlight an engineer who has done the right thing, and keeps doing the right thing. Today I’m going to do that with Peter P. Tsai, who is credited with inventing the electrostatic non-woven filter used in the N95-type disposable masks […]
The latest figures from the HSPC show that a shocking 1,084 of the coronavirus cases in Ireland are associated with healthcare workers are. That’s 27% of the total number of confirmed cases – a percentage that keeps creeping upwards as new numbers are released. These numbers are horrific and completely unacceptable. The failure of the government to protect the people on the […]
Nurses across the United States are protesting at the lack of protective clothing and equipment available to frontline workers in the fight against the Coronavirus. Similar shortages in Ireland has led to anger and upset being expressed on social media by healthcare professionals, and appeals online for supplies of safety clothing. Compounding the difficult situation […]
Paul Cullen, in the Irish Times, yesterday: There is no evidence to support the wearing of surgical masks by healthcare workers for close patient encounters and staff meetings, according to new official guidance. The guidance was issued by Health Service Executive clinical lead on infection control Prof Martin Cormican in response to moves towards routine […]
The Netherlands has been forced to recall hundreds of thousands of protective face masks imported from China after they were found to be defective. The health ministry has recalled 600,000 masks because they failed to meet quality standards. Dutch authorities received 1.3 million face masks from China on March 21 and distributed hundreds of thousands […]