RHS grad makes ‘better mask’

Talk about “making a difference.”

A better face mask to help block COVID-19 transmission has been developed for use in a San Antonio health care system and its creator is a 1982 graduate of Rockdale High School.

Tommye (Cashaw) Austin is chief executive nurse at University Health. San Antonio expects a surge in COVID-19 cases next month. When Austin learned the

When Austin learned the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had given University Health the authority to create masks on their own—rather than use current products, she visited a home supply store to see if she could come up with a better one than the N-95, the current standard.

And she did. Austin told San Antonio television station KSAT that tests by the Southwest Research Institute indicated her masks have filtration rates ranging from 97.8 to 99.5.

That compares to 95 percent for the N-95s which are now in widespread use.

Those numbers refer to the percentage of virus or bacteria blocked by the masks.

Austin said she hopes to produce and store about 6,500 masks and believes each can be used twice if they are cleaned with the correct sanitation equipment and protocols that would be used on N-95 masks.

Austin said her hospital is sharing the design with other facilities in the region.

“My primary goal was not to make money off this mask, or anything,” she said. “The main purpose of this mask is to keep people safe.”