Coronavirus prep

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.

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).

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.

lemurcat2 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.

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.

lemurcat2 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.

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/

lemurcat2 wrote: »

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.

Yeah, my wife calls them "cone masks". The shape is odd and a bit uncomfortable.

I haven't been in AZ that long to forget the cold! I'm actually freezing today and it's only like 42.

And further, I was wrong anyway -- I knew that window glass allows some UV light to come in, but it seems they block nearly 100% of the UV-C light -- I was curious about that so looked it up. UV-C is the only type of UV that kills germs in the air.

https://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q12082.html#:~:text=UV-C is produced only,UV-C light is blocked.

MikePfirrman wrote: »

lemurcat2 wrote: »

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.

Yeah, my wife calls them "cone masks". The shape is odd and a bit uncomfortable.

I haven't been in AZ that long to forget the cold! I'm actually freezing today and it's only like 42.

And further, I was wrong anyway -- I knew that window glass allows some UV light to come in, but it seems they block nearly 100% of the UV-C light -- I was curious about that so looked it up. UV-C is the only type of UV that kills germs in the air.

https://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q12082.html#:~:text=UV-C is produced only,UV-C light is blocked.

Any day that gets above 32 F here (Minnesota) this time of year we’ll gladly take. It was double digits below zero in northern part of the state this morning.

But I did have to shovel my front sidewalk and front porch stairs 2 times on Tuesday, so exercise! (My lot/sidewalk is tiny compared to what many have to deal with, I know.)

kshama2001 wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

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.

I KNEW I'd be getting the temp of my water at some point and you've just confirmed it

Huh? In my case, it's on a digital readout right on the front of the (tankless) heater. IMU, they set it at 120F for people without a dishwasher, higher (with a different electronic controller, I think) if there is a dishwasher.

Gisel2015 wrote: »

With respect to N95 masks, here is what I read today:

"...the CDC isn't currently recommending N95 masks for the general public, partly due to a shortage of the masks for health care workers, and also due to concerns that people will tolerate the masks, which can hinder breathing.
"I worry that if we suggest or require that people wear N95's they won't wear them all the time," Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the new head of the CDC told CNN's Anderson Cooper and Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta in a town hall Wednesday.
"They're very hard to breathe in when you wear them properly," Walensky said. "They're very hard to tolerate when you wear them for long periods of time."

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/28/health/double-masks-covid-19-wellness-trnd/index.html]\

I had a blood drawn today so I wore a surgical mask and a cloth one on top of it. I had difficult breathing properly and I developed a HA for few hours, so I am glad that the process was short and fast, and that I don't go inside crowded places very often. I do have a N95 mask but I found them very uncomfortable to wear and painful on my face.

I think there's very few people outside of the medical field who have access to N95 masks.
The discussion here has been about the KN95 masks, which are not the same, and more readily available to the general public.

MikePfirrman wrote: »

What does everyone think about the J&J results? If you haven't heard, it's not nearly as effective as Moderna or the Pfizer (both 95%). It's like 67% effective, but keeps 85% from being severe and out of the hospital.

My two cents. I'd take it and wait on Moderna or Pfizer being more widely available. I think they also said the the J&J is only like 50% effective against the S Africa strain.

I agree with you, as long as side effects are minimal. 67% is way better than 0%, but, moot point unless approved.