Hundreds of aerosol boxes meant to protect doctors from infection when they intubate severely ill COVID-19 patients have been distributed around Australian and overseas hospitals. 

However, an evaluation has found the devices, widely lauded as ‘ingenious’ on social media, may be putting doctors at greater risk through damaged personal protective equipment (PPE). 

They could also increase the chance of patient hypoxia, because it takes around 48 seconds longer to intubate a patient when they are used, say researchers from the Cabrini and Alfred Hospitals and Monash University, all in Melbourne.

Theirs is believed to be the first formal study on the transparent plastic cube boxes, invented by a Taiwanese doctor, that cover the patient’s head and shoulders — with access holes for the intubating doctor’s arms — to reduce exposure to aerosol droplets.