In Episode 13: Masking the Issue, our host Josh Farden speaks with Devabhaktuni Srikrishna, founder of Patient Knowhow. Srikrishna is an advocate of developing a scalable system that will stop the spread of the virus. In helping stop the spread of the Ebola virus, Srikrishna has an understanding of how to control epidemics and how public health agencies operate. 

Srikrishna stresses the importance of elastomeric or high filtration masks. Being an airborne virus, COVID has a high level of contagion, and newer variants found in India are shown to be even easier to spread. A simple cloth mask isn’t as effective as a high filtration mask to stop the aerosol spread. 

A big part of Srikrishna’s message is community action. This could mean public health interventions, building hospitals, increases in diagnostic testing, and early action to isolate. This all happened during the Ebola outbreak. Once the general public understood collectively that it was a real, dangerous disease, most stopped attending events, and started utilizing hand hygiene and cleaning spaces with chlorine. This was essential in helping eliminate Ebola from the community.

There were/are many issues taking place simultaneously in India and other countries. There is a supply issue for health care workers and the general public, but also a lack of knowledge about how the virus spreads. The CDC and news reports have given many conflicting reports about mask-wearing. However, Srikrishna suggests that India must act before trying to obtain all of the correct, ever-evolving data in order to save lives.

Millions of masks are currently being sent to India, but needs to happen on a larger scale. This paired with the WHO needing to more broadly use the word airborne in their messaging, so citizens understand the importance of using high filtration masks. With the current underreporting of cases in India, Srikrishna suspects that it is spreading at least 2-5 more than being reported.

Srikrishna hopes that the public take it upon themselves, with the help of Patient Knowhow and other organizations, to have a deeper understanding of all the varieties of masks beyond cloth available, and how effective they are in limiting the spread. 

Key Takeaways:

• If a virus pops up in a smaller population, the WHO will come in and address it. But if there’s a virus spreading in a larger urban area, it involves a larger, more intricate process.  

• High filtration masks filter out particles at a higher rate than cloth masks. 

• Some main reasons why South Korea was so successful during COVID were their proactive measures in getting rapid testing throughout the country, along with using KF94 masks (their own version of N95’s).

• When the virus was more contained in India, the rate of contagion from one person to someone else should be less than one, ideally zero. In March, scientists saw it was more than one, and the graphs reported an almost completely vertical spike.

• There are many counterfeit masks being made from opportunistic companies that are not tested or medical grade. The danger with using these masks is they do not protect you in the same ways a standardized one would from a reliable manufacturer. 

• There was an article in the NY Times about the uses of masks in Los Angeles and how it varied greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood. 

• There are many elastomeric and high filtration masks available on the market today. They are not only good for the virus, but they are also beneficial during fire season to filter out the toxic ash.

• Srikrishna suggests that HEPA filters and other air cleaners are a great way to filter indoor spaces for the virus and wildfires.