Taiwan has been praised by many for its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, with Bill Gates calling the country’s response “exemplary”.
The country only has 379 confirmed infections and 5 deaths, which is pretty damn impressive for a population of 23.78 million.
Now everyone is looking to Taiwan to lead the way in containing the spread of the coronavirus.
So if they tell us to disinfect our face masks by placing it in our rice cookers, we’ll damn well do it, even if it sounds completely ridiculous.
Taiwan Told People to Disinfect Masks By Steaming it in Rice Cooker
As you know, surgical face masks are in short supply all over the world, which is why many countries like America and Singapore have advised their citizens to use reusable cloth masks.
But Taiwan has a creative solution to this problem.
During a light-hearted presentation on Sunday (5 April), Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director-General Wu Shou-mei showed Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) head Chen Shih-chung how to disinfect a mask using a rice cooker.
According to TaiwanNews, this method uses dry heat to kill potentially accumulated bacteria or viruses on the mask after use.
They first place a metal rack at the bottom of the cooker and put the used mask inside before“cooking” it for three minutes.
One tasty mask coming up.
She then advises users to allow the mask to continue to sit inside for another five minutes. She said that after that five-minute wait is over, the mask should be successfully disinfected.
Wu warned not to pour any water into the cooker -as we normally would for cooking rice – as it would damage the mask.
She also noted that using a rice cooker is better than spraying disinfectant as the liquid could damage the mask’s electrostatic layer.
I don’t know what an electrostatic layer is but I’m going to believe this person who’s sticking face masks in a rice cooker.
Wu said that a surgical face mask can be disinfected with this rice cooker method “four or five times.”
Moreover, research on the procedure carried out by the FDA has found that the bacterial filtration efficiency (BFE) of the masks can be maintained at a level of 99 percent when dry heating the masks in this way, even after five times, she said.
Sounds like a cheap and innovative way to disinfect masks, right? Well, it may not be as simple as it sounds.
Thai Man Melts Mask In Rice Cooker
One man in Thailand decided to try this method after watching Taiwan’s Digital Minister, Audrey Tang, successfully disinfect her mask that way, according to World of Buzz.
But things didn’t turn out too well.
Yes, this guy “cooked” his mask so well that he burnt the heck out of it.
Some netizens said he had used the wrong type of rice cooker while others said he had used the wrong settings, but the question remains: can a rice cooker actually disinfect your mask?
Well, as AsiaOne noted, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says flu viruses can be killed with temperatures above 75 degrees celsius, and temperatures inside rice cookers can reach up to 100 degrees celsius for boiling water, so it might be possible.
But the Singapore gahmen has not said anything about this, so we should probably keep our face masks away from our rice cookers for now.
Unless it’s part of your daily diet, of course.