Coronavirus: US hospitals grapple with millions of counterfeit N95 masks
- According to 3M, the leading US producer of N95s, more than 10 million counterfeits have been seized since the pandemic began
- According to a US border official monitoring Covid-related scams, the flood of fake 3M masks from China has been the most consistent
Scores of counterfeit 3M respirators have slipped past US investigators in recent months, making it to the cheeks and chins of health care workers and perplexing experts who say their quality is not vastly inferior to the real thing.
N95 masks are prized for their ability to filter out 95 per cent of the minuscule particles that can carry Covid-19. Yet the fakes pouring into the country have fooled health care leaders from coast to coast.
As many as 1.9 million counterfeit 3M masks made their way to about 40 hospitals in Washington state, according to the state hospital association, spurring officials to alert staff members and pull them off the shelf.
The elite Cleveland Clinic recently conceded that, since November, it had inadvertently distributed 3M counterfeits to hospital staffers. A Minnesota hospital made a similar admission.
Nurses at Jersey Shore University Medical Center have been highly suspicious since November that the misshapen and odd-smelling “3M” masks they were given are knock-offs, their concerns fuelled by mask lot numbers matching those the company listed online as possible fakes.
“People have been terrified for the last 2½ months,” said Daniel Hayes, a nurse and union vice-president at the New Jersey hospital. “They felt like they were taking their lives in their hands, and they don’t have anything else to wear.”
According to 3M, the leading US producer of N95s, more than 10 million counterfeits have been seized since the pandemic began and the company has fielded 10,500 queries about the authenticity of N95s.
