The Doctor Will See You Now [Non-Fiction]

Chapter 96: The COVID Series

One colleague from another hospital asked, "Say, if a patient just came back from mainland and they've just totally ignored the self-quarantine rule and came to outpatient's appointment despite being told not to, what do I do?" (Answer from senior is: discuss with infection control and they'll probably give you a non-answer.)

One colleague said during clinic today, he had 7-8 patients out of a total of twenty-odd in one session who had recently come back from mainland, none of whom were in the so-called mandatory self-quarantine. People in such situations, where they have medical follow-up despite recent travel, are told to either just restock their meds at designated areas and not go into waiting areas or just defer their appointments altogether. Obviously, this is a well-regarded instruction /s

One colleague just called me crying because his head of department won't let him have any more N95 (a type of tight-fit mask meant to filter almost all pathogen particles, which is what we wear for people in airborne isolations -- cases of nCoV, TB, SARS etc.) because we're running so low on supplies that they only get given a certain amount. My colleague, after a night on call and a few days (so about 40-50 hours of work), used up his five in supply and was refused his request for more. His senior asked him how exactly he used it, as if he were being purposefully wasteful. He doesn't feel safe going to work because he might catch nCoV.

Something funny amidst all this madness (but this is an older post): a brilliant (/s) politician called Ann Chiang has appointed herself somewhat of a medical expert (despite having no medical experience) and has, despite actual medical and common sense advice, repeatedly advocated for steaming face masks to sterilise them and reuse them.

Let me just hold you up for a second and imagine this: you've breathed into this face mask for hours. Possibly coughed or sneezed into it. On the other side of the mask, there has been hours of exposure to the outside world, including other people's coughs and sneezes and dust. Now, put that into your food steamer and send jets of steam running over the germy mask and allow said steam to shoot out of the top of your steamer and flood your home...

Meanwhile, the three delicate layers of your face mask are put under high temperature. What happens to delicate structures under stress (whether it's heat, light, physical stress or otherwise)?

They disintegrate.

So, aside from basically turning all the germs you've collected throughout the day into air freshener inside your home (and inside your food steamer! Vom), you're also destroying the face mask. So even if you re-wear it again, it no longer has the protective factor its unsteamed self has.

It's better to laugh at the ridiculousness of this rather than cry that this absolute biscuit is sitting in a seat where she can voice her lunacy on national television.