Coronavirus prep

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  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,846 Member
    Antiopelle wrote: »
    In Belgium any type of cloth mask is now prohibited in most hospitals and the disposable blue masks are generally encouraged. Apparently hospital staff encountered too many patients and visitors wearing cloth masks that were clearly not hygienic anymore, becoming a source of bacterial infection in themselves.
    Cloth masks should be washed every day with soap at a temp of at least 60°c. The reasoning behind is that this is a hurdle most people do not take and disposables will be replaced more often as they are more convenient. Normally the max time to use the disposables is 4 hours, but I do believe that many people wear them more than that, usually until one of the elastics break.

    Thanks for this! For those of us who use F, 60°C = 140°F.

    I haven't been feeling good about my cloth mask since seeing this graphic on another thread (and looking up the sourcing.)

    j7v9ixw8smkx.png

    I have 20 KN95 masks from my former employer but cannot breathe through them and feel sick after wearing them. (May be related to my chemical sensitivity.) I also tried one of those blue ones, and it is better than the KN95 but not as breathable as the cloth.

    I'm almost never in public though - just at supermarkets, where there is 100% face covering wearing compliance (but a lesser amount of wearing CORRECTLY), and I go at times of day where I'm not within 6 feet of people for more than a few seconds.
  • RetiredAndLovingIt
    RetiredAndLovingIt Posts: 1,394 Member
    I am curious about all the schools doing online that I hear about on tv. My gkids schools in both Iowa & Oklahoma have been full time in person since they started in the fall, except for a 2 wk shutdown around Thanksgiving. Now instead of total school shut down, it will be by individual classrooms. I don’t really know, but it doesn’t seem to have increased the cases that much, even when Iowa was #4.

    Gaiters were allowed at first, so gson got some & they were so long, we doubled them over & I sewed them to stay. But now school doesn’t allow them.
  • SModa61
    SModa61 Posts: 2,829 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Antiopelle wrote: »
    In Belgium any type of cloth mask is now prohibited in most hospitals and the disposable blue masks are generally encouraged. Apparently hospital staff encountered too many patients and visitors wearing cloth masks that were clearly not hygienic anymore, becoming a source of bacterial infection in themselves.
    Cloth masks should be washed every day with soap at a temp of at least 60°c. The reasoning behind is that this is a hurdle most people do not take and disposables will be replaced more often as they are more convenient. Normally the max time to use the disposables is 4 hours, but I do believe that many people wear them more than that, usually until one of the elastics break.

    Thanks for this! For those of us who use F, 60°C = 140°F.

    I haven't been feeling good about my cloth mask since seeing this graphic on another thread (and looking up the sourcing.)

    j7v9ixw8smkx.png

    I have 20 KN95 masks from my former employer but cannot breathe through them and feel sick after wearing them. (May be related to my chemical sensitivity.) I also tried one of those blue ones, and it is better than the KN95 but not as breathable as the cloth.

    I'm almost never in public though - just at supermarkets, where there is 100% face covering wearing compliance (but a lesser amount of wearing CORRECTLY), and I go at times of day where I'm not within 6 feet of people for more than a few seconds.

    @Kshama2001 I remember this infographic. Quilting cotton fabric is what I use to sew masks and I had forgotten that in the beginning coffee filters were used in the filter pocket.

    Also, interesting article on the mass rollout. Totally different than what I realized. Since my parents are still "researching" the vaccine, I did not try online today and the only people that I personally know that tried, did not have a problem. But for all the bad, i doubt it was any worse than how it went in Florida. It finally took my techy son to write a software script that monitored appointment offerings and set off an alarm when one popped up. First two he lost (first, he did not have her insurance info and second, he was pouring a cup of coffee) but third one worked. But I truly feel bad for the folks that do not have computer access or skills, or don't have someone with those skills to help them.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,724 Member
    I have not been inside a store, clinic, anywhere in months. The last time I was I saw some real ridiculousness with plastic shields that were open all the way around instead of masks AND masks made of lace, which obviously don't do anything except fulfill the requirement for face covering. They think they're being cute, until it's their family members who end up dead. In person school is set to begin around here on Feb. 8th, for K through 2nd grade, with 3rd, 4th and 5th graders resuming in another 3 to 4 weeks. ugh, it feels like I am never getting out of quarantine! Every place that announces opening for appointments fills up within 15 minutes.

    Yeah. Someone in my FB feed (daughter of a good friend, so I follow the daughter to see grandkid photos) just posted "my body, my rules" on a thread about double-masking. 🙄 Lots of photos throughout the pandemic of her all huggy-maskless with friends/coworkers/etc. Also a rabid anti-vaxxer. I hope her child doesn't pay for that - either of those things - sincerely.)

    On the shield-only front, I've seen only a very few people here, like that. I've seen quite a few mask+shield (and have some friends who do this, if they must be around others, because immunocompromised). Since it's rare here to see shield-only, I've wondered if it's folks who have actual breathing issues with masks, since one can't really tell that from visual inspection. Can't really recall circumstances where I saw them, either, i.e., whether potentially avoidable risk like grocery store, vs. maybe unavoidable ones like medical facility visit.

    I have to admit, I don't pay as much attention to what other people do, as I did at first - at least not until they get close to me. (Most people here are masked, have been for a while, and the majority properly - a few slipped down below nose or on chin, when I've paid attention, but not many, and perhaps less common than at first.)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,724 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Antiopelle wrote: »
    In Belgium any type of cloth mask is now prohibited in most hospitals and the disposable blue masks are generally encouraged. Apparently hospital staff encountered too many patients and visitors wearing cloth masks that were clearly not hygienic anymore, becoming a source of bacterial infection in themselves.
    Cloth masks should be washed every day with soap at a temp of at least 60°c. The reasoning behind is that this is a hurdle most people do not take and disposables will be replaced more often as they are more convenient. Normally the max time to use the disposables is 4 hours, but I do believe that many people wear them more than that, usually until one of the elastics break.

    Thanks for this! For those of us who use F, 60°C = 140°F.

    (snip useful infographic and some good comments, for reply length)

    I'm almost never in public though - just at supermarkets, where there is 100% face covering wearing compliance (but a lesser amount of wearing CORRECTLY), and I go at times of day where I'm not within 6 feet of people for more than a few seconds.

    This is probably weird, but as I mentioned I've been doing bandit-style cotton scarf over disposable blue mask. I've actually *boiled* the cotton scarves on the stove - they hold up well.

    (Maybe this sounds freaky compulsive, so I'll add for context that my hot water heater only goes to 120F, and my clothes-dryer died awhile back mid-pandemic and I don't want deliverers/installers in my house until I can at least air the place out (it's 24F, -4C here at 3:47PM today), so I'm air drying stuff I wash for the time being.) Boiling elastic (and maybe synthetic fiber fabric) would be a bad idea, but it can work on all-cotton.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    I am curious about all the schools doing online that I hear about on tv. My gkids schools in both Iowa & Oklahoma have been full time in person since they started in the fall, except for a 2 wk shutdown around Thanksgiving. Now instead of total school shut down, it will be by individual classrooms. I don’t really know, but it doesn’t seem to have increased the cases that much, even when Iowa was #4.

    Gaiters were allowed at first, so gson got some & they were so long, we doubled them over & I sewed them to stay. But now school doesn’t allow them.

    My kids (8 and 10) have been online since March 10 of last year. They're doing fine with it, but I know others who struggle. We did have some districts go in person in the fall, including our neighboring district. It was fairly short lived though. There weren't a ton of cases traced back to school in terms of overall numbers state wide, but they would have an outbreak and have to close up and clean...re-open...close up and clean...re-open, etc. It just got to the point of not being worth it, so they went online sometime in late October...would have been shut down anyway in November as we went back into stay at home orders due to significantly rising cases.

    Schools here in NM have been given the green light to go hybrid in person starting Feb 8th, at the discretion of the district. I'm hoping all goes well. Our total case numbers and positivity rate has dropped substantially from early November where we were getting around 3,000 new cases daily...now we're back down into the hundreds..500-600 daily.

    Biggest issue in NM is that even in the best of times, we have limited hospital capacity and capabilities. We are dead last in the US in regards to per capita hospital beds and only have four hospitals in the entire state with ICU capability. We were completely maxed out from about mid November through late December when we finally saw numbers starting to drop again.
  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    My husband just bought some of the KN95 masks. I know they vary as far as quality, and have no idea if these are better or worse than my multi-layer cloth masks.

    He's trying to convince me that I should be wearing these to work instead of the cloth masks, especially with the new strains of the virus.

    I don't work with the "public", but I have to sit in a closed room with 9 of my co-workers, separated by plexiglass (which I'm not convinced helps at all).

    Not sure which ones I'll end up wearing.

    This is how I know the KN-95s I have work. When I wear a cloth mask, my glasses fog up. When I wear the KN-95, they don't. I know that sounds ridiculously simple, but the KN-95s I have, when you fit the nose, don't fog up the glasses. What is very annoying about them, though, is they pull on your ears.

    There are back of the neck straps you can buy that you can attach the KN-95 to in order to make the more comfortable and not irritate your ears.
  • busyPK
    busyPK Posts: 3,788 Member
    Regarding kids and school: my kids have been in school since September, full-time (they are in elementary school). Their school district has a dashboard to check cases in school based on each building and whether it's a child or teacher/administrator in quarantine, reason for quarantine (exposed at school or elsewhere), if they tested negative or positive and much more. It's been very informative. Based on the data here school hasn't been a factor in the positively rate for our community (very few test positive and non of them have been linked back to being exposed at school). The issue is more with having enough subs to replace those that are out due to medical reasons (high risk) or have to quarantine for one reason or another. I live in Kansas, but close to Kansas City in what we call metro- Kansas City (but on the Kansas side).
  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    My husband just bought some of the KN95 masks. I know they vary as far as quality, and have no idea if these are better or worse than my multi-layer cloth masks.

    He's trying to convince me that I should be wearing these to work instead of the cloth masks, especially with the new strains of the virus.

    I don't work with the "public", but I have to sit in a closed room with 9 of my co-workers, separated by plexiglass (which I'm not convinced helps at all).

    Not sure which ones I'll end up wearing.

    This is how I know the KN-95s I have work. When I wear a cloth mask, my glasses fog up. When I wear the KN-95, they don't. I know that sounds ridiculously simple, but the KN-95s I have, when you fit the nose, don't fog up the glasses. What is very annoying about them, though, is they pull on your ears.

    There are back of the neck straps you can buy that you can attach the KN-95 to in order to make the more comfortable and not irritate your ears.

    But dosen't that just say the KN95s fit better around your nose? Really doesn't say they filter better or worse.

    Here's a medical supply company with some pretty good ideas on checking quality.

    https://firstforwardconsulting.com/how-to-tell-a-real-kn95-mask-from-a-fake/
  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,467 Member
    There was a grocery checker at a local store who wore a short shield, no mask. (Would guess it was made specifically to go with mask). I don’t know if she still works there, I haven’t been back for about 4 months.