{"id":98121,"date":"2020-04-10T09:46:47","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T13:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=98121"},"modified":"2020-04-10T10:50:21","modified_gmt":"2020-04-10T14:50:21","slug":"covid-19-protection-gear-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=98121","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 Protection Gear Scams"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It was predictable that people would emerge to take advantage of the current coronavirus crisis.\u00a0 There have been many reported financial scams targeting small business owners which may be an opportunity for another post.<\/p>\n

However, this is to highlight scams centered around protective gear… or more precisely, gear being sold as protective when it is not.<\/p>\n

The Sun reports: “<\/strong>HOW COULD THEY? <\/span>How scammers behind million-pound trade in fake coronavirus protection gear and medicine are putting lives at risk<\/strong><\/a>“<\/strong><\/p>\n

The article makes the argument that fake coronavirus masks, testing kits and drugs pose a global threat that puts thousands of lives at risk.<\/p>\n

Soaring demand in the Covid-19 pandemic has seen a multi-million pound trade spring up, with criminals plying their vile trade on the back of people\u2019s fears.<\/p>\n

Interpol has now warned that one of the five global threats from the coronavirus is the fraudulent and counterfeit trade in personal protective equipment and anti-viral pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n

With China and India, the world’s two largest producers of medicine, in lockdown, demand now outstrips the supply, opening the door for counterfeit drugs.<\/p>\n

Interpol says it has made 121 arrests across 90 countries in just seven days, resulting in the seizure of dangerous pharmaceuticals worth over \u00a311m.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The United States standard for an effective COVID-19 filtration mask is an N95, which will have a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)<\/span> name and number stamped on the product.<\/p>\n

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This item is more appropriately called a respirator vs. a mask, but sometimes referred to with both terms.<\/p>\n

Recently, health officials have acknowledged the KN95 standard mask which is China’s standard.\u00a0 I have read numerous studies and found that it is equivalent to the US N95<\/strong> standard for filtering out particulates, but the problem is nobody enforces that standard.\u00a0 People are stamping cheap cotton masks with “KN95<\/strong>” and selling them.<\/p>\n

Here in the US, we have things like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to protect consumers.\u00a0 There does not appear to be an equivalent for enforcement in China, or they are not as effective.<\/p>\n

More can be found about counterfeit masks at the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The CDC is advising that N95 masks should be reserved for people on the front lines such as health care workers.\u00a0 This is because most of them have to get within the 6 feet social distancing guidelines to administer patient care.\u00a0 The CDC states that most of the general public should wear non-N95 face coverings and if they maintain the 6 feet of distance they should be OK.<\/p>\n

Getting back to the counterfeiting – this is despicable.\u00a0 Some of those photos of seized materials look similar to a drug bust.<\/p>\n

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I hope that international law enforcement agencies have some real teeth to crack down on this.\u00a0 Lives are at risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was predictable that people would emerge to take advantage of the current coronavirus crisis.\u00a0 There … COVID-19 Protection Gear Scams<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":663,"featured_media":98122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[478],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-none"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98132,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98121\/revisions\/98132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/98122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}