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Coronavirus prep
Replies
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I think it's important not to get too lost in the weeds on mask types, depending on your exposure and risk levels. If you are maintaining distancing and not lingering in indoor public spaces, any well fitting face covering will probably do just fine. If you work in a public space or will be spending some time in a public indoor space (like a long grocery shopping stop), it's probably a good idea to ensure you have multiple layers, or double up. Also if you live in an area where others are liable to invade the personal space you're trying to maintain. If you are at high risk or in a hot spot, you might want to consider investing in some serious, healthcare grade masks.
Gators got a bad rap when some company testing something else saw data that suggested gators did nothing. It was quickly debunked but retractions never get the same press. Gators are better than nothing and probably similar protection to a single ply cloth mask. I personally wouldn't wear either into a grocery store, but they are better than nothing and will at least physically block particles from a sneeze or cough travelling 6 feet I would guess.
If everyone would wear anything over their nose and mouth (other than the smart a** masks designed as an fu to mask rules) whenever they were in public, we'd be in a much better place right now.
I have some soft cotton masks with a gauzey inner layer that I wear outside, at work (since I rarely see anyone other than the receptionist and everyone masks), or to quickly run into a place to pickup takeout or just buy the bananas I forgot). If I'm going somewhere indoors that I think might be crowded or I'll be inside for more than 5 or 10 minutes, I have thicker masks with two layers of tighter fabric and a nose fitter. I'm thinking of buying some disposable masks to double up with my cloth masks now that these other strains might be more transmissible. But I have no known risk factors and am able to avoid other people almost entirely.7 -
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.3 -
RetiredAndLovingIt wrote: »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.2 -
Adding in about cleaning masks. The point I have not seen in the recent discussion is detergent. Detergent breaks the lipid layer of COVID and, from my understanding, destroys it. If detergent does that on its own, why do we need to worry about temp too. I personally have concentrated on a good detergent soaping, thorough rinsing, and then hang dry.10
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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.7 -
SuzySunshine99 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.4 -
MikePfirrman wrote: »SuzySunshine99 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.9 -
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).4
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Theoldguy1 wrote: »MikePfirrman wrote: »SuzySunshine99 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/1 -
Was listening to Dr Sanjay Gupta on CNN. He said if vaccination numbers ramp up to a realistic level, he feels like 75% of Americans (probably the most who are willing to) could be vaxxed by the end if the summer or sooner. Also said J&J says they will deliver 100 mil doses "by June" but it's not clear when delivery would actually start, assuming of course it gets approved.8
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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.3
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Here is a reason you can be glad to not live in China ATM. They are apparently rolling out anal swabs as a more accurate way of testing for COVID. Curious if it is self swab, or some poor medical personnel are having to carry out those tests.
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/coronavirus-testing-china-trials-anal-swabbing-for-highrisk-cases/news-story/4b4d71274e89120a77c70e282e419704
Only for key high risk groups in quarantine
Obviously not practical for widespread screening.
Drive through testing centres would look interesting though.
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paperpudding wrote: »Here is a reason you can be glad to not live in China ATM. They are apparently rolling out anal swabs as a more accurate way of testing for COVID. Curious if it is self swab, or some poor medical personnel are having to carry out those tests.
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/coronavirus-testing-china-trials-anal-swabbing-for-highrisk-cases/news-story/4b4d71274e89120a77c70e282e419704
Only for key high risk groups in quarantine
Obviously not practical for widespread screening.
Drive through testing centres would look interesting though.
Brings back to mind the "Covid testing in rear" sign that was a meme a while back . . . .11 -
SuzySunshine99 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.
I bought some a bit ago but didn't like them, as I felt my breath way more which was weird (they have this compartment). Oddly enough I was talking to a friend today about them, and he said basically what Mike did -- that they are better for fogging but tug on the ears. When I go to work, which I am tomorrow, I usually do masks in public spaces but not in my private office, so based on this discussion I'm leaning toward the KN95+cloth mask in public and then no mask otherwise.2 -
paperpudding wrote: »Here is a reason you can be glad to not live in China ATM. They are apparently rolling out anal swabs as a more accurate way of testing for COVID. Curious if it is self swab, or some poor medical personnel are having to carry out those tests.
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/coronavirus-testing-china-trials-anal-swabbing-for-highrisk-cases/news-story/4b4d71274e89120a77c70e282e419704
Only for key high risk groups in quarantine
Obviously not practical for widespread screening.
Drive through testing centres would look interesting though.
Brings back to mind the "Covid testing in rear" sign that was a meme a while back . . . .
LOL yes indeed.
many a true word spoken in jest......
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SuzySunshine99 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.
I bought some a bit ago but didn't like them, as I felt my breath way more which was weird (they have this compartment). Oddly enough I was talking to a friend today about them, and he said basically what Mike did -- that they are better for fogging but tug on the ears. When I go to work, which I am tomorrow, I usually do masks in public spaces but not in my private office, so based on this discussion I'm leaning toward the KN95+cloth mask in public and then no mask otherwise.
Many people have mentioned the ear-tugging issue with the KN95s. I tried one of mine on, and actually have the opposite problem. I have a small head, and they are too loose on me. My cloth ones have adjustable ear loops, so they fit much better.
I might try doubling them up...maybe the KN95 will fit me better over the cloth mask. Or else I'll have to try to rig something to tighten the ear loops on the 95s.2 -
CDC recommends schools reopen for in person learning.
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/26/960885936/cdc-makes-case-for-school-reopening3 -
SuzySunshine99 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.
I bought some a bit ago but didn't like them, as I felt my breath way more which was weird (they have this compartment). Oddly enough I was talking to a friend today about them, and he said basically what Mike did -- that they are better for fogging but tug on the ears. When I go to work, which I am tomorrow, I usually do masks in public spaces but not in my private office, so based on this discussion I'm leaning toward the KN95+cloth mask in public and then no mask otherwise.
You can get them without the air vent. The first ones I got had the air vent -- some businesses don't like those (like doctors offices), because they allow your air to come out of them, potentially exposing others if you're an asymptomatic carrier.
If you're going to go in your office without a mask, I'd certainly look into a whole room air purifier with UV light. There's no way I'd work in an office without a mask and trust the ventilation systems. They are not built to prevent any strain of Covid-19, much less the new variants. And it's all about viral load -- I believe that's why they are saying these new variants could be more deadly -- more contagious means it takes less time to get a higher viral load when exposed. And if you have a window, keep the sunshine beaming in to your office. Though glass filters out most UV rays, some still gets through.
This is a decent summary of many of them, though not a scientific publication, by any means. But UV does work.
https://heavy.com/home/uv-air-purifier/0 -
Chef_Barbell wrote: »CDC recommends schools reopen for in person learning.
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/26/960885936/cdc-makes-case-for-school-reopening
Sample of 1 but my wife is in education and had to stay home for 2 weeks last fall due to close contact with a kid and his mom that tested positive.5 -
MikePfirrman wrote: »And if you have a window, keep the sunshine beaming in to your office. Though glass filters out most UV rays, some still gets through.
I do have good sunlight, at least when we have sun.
(I initially misread this as you suggesting opening the window, and not only does it not open, but I was thinking "someone forgets there are climates where January and open windows don't mesh!) ;-)
My masks don't have vents, it's the shape of it that feels weird.3
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