BACKGROUND: A major concern among healthcare experts is a shortage of N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) during a pandemic. If the supply of N95 FFRs becomes limited, reusable elastomeric half-mask respirators (EHMRs) may be used to protect healthcare workers. The focus of this study was to evaluate the effects on filter performance of wiping decontamination for EHMR P100 filter cartridges. METHODS: The filter cartridge exterior of EHMR Honeywell, Moldex, and MSA models was wiped using quaternary ammonium and sodium hypochlorite wipes. These filter cartridge properties were assessed including observational analysis and filter performance tests. These wiping and assessing procedures were repeated after each set of wiping cycles (50, 100, 150, 200, and 400 cycles) to determine the effects of wiping decontamination. RESULTS: For sodium hypochlorite wipes, Honeywell, Moldex, and MSA models passed the NIOSH liquid particulate penetration criteria for all wiping cycles from 50 to 400 (penetrations < 0.014%). For quaternary ammonium wipes, filter penetrations of Moldex failed (penetrations >0.03%) after 150 cycles, while the filter penetrations of Honeywell and MSA passed for all wiping cycles (penetrations ≤ 0.013%). CONCLUSIONS: Wiping decontamination methods using sodium hypochlorite and quaternary ammonium wipes could be considered as promising decontamination candidates for Honeywell, Moldex, and MSA reuse, except for the wiping number selection for Moldex (< 150 cycles) when using the quaternary ammonium wipe.

OBJECTIVE: Mental health issues increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among children. Our past research efforts found that surveillance data can address a variety of health concerns; that personal psychological awareness impacted ability to cope, and mental health outcomes were improved when survivors were triaged to mental health countermeasures. To build upon our public health efforts we wanted to see if increased screen time due to remote learning caused by the pandemic influenced school aged children's mental health. METHODS: With the hypothesis that excessive time spent isolated during remote learning increased the amount of mental health events in children, we conducted a public health surveillance project on actual diagnoses rather than just symptoms, controlling for historical mental health and emotional disorders. RESULTS: The entire cohort of children ages 6 to 17 years were studied over time before and during the pandemic for their medically diagnosed mental health and emotional outcomes by the amount of pandemic induced social isolation. CONCLUSIONS: After controlling for historical diagnoses and the rate of COVID-19, the effect of pandemic induced social isolation had a linear increase on the amount of anxiety, resulting in a four-fold increase in pandemic social isolation-induced anxiety.