General Wellness

Please don’t get me wrong. Masks are imperative for a variety of reasons, and anything is better than nothing. However, not all masks are created equal and most people are deluding themselves into thinking they are protected adequately with a flimsy cloth mask.

With the ORIGINAL form of the virus, cloth masks added only 10 more minutes of protection, when people were tested in closed rooms with inadequate circulation. Double layers were a little better. Surgical masks were slightly better than that but N95, and the Chinese equivalent KN95, were orders of magnitude more protective against getting an infectious dose of the SARS-Cov-2 virus. Those provide many hours of protection.

Enter the Delta variant which produces 1000x more virus in people’s noses and is 4-5x more infectious than the original form. It is no more capable of getting around or through masks, it just takes much less virus to infect someone. Whereas we saw no significant outbreaks of Covid after the riotous scenes of civil unrest last year, there have been numerous outdoor events which have resulted in Delta variant outbreaks in the last month. It’s no longer an indoor disease.

It is a respiratory, aerosolized virus. A simple way of looking at it is this: if you are walking down the street and smell someone’s exhaled smoke (or other forms of smoke becoming more popular these days), you are essentially breathing in someone else’s exhaled air, i.e. aerosolized particles. That’s potentially the virus. Whereas before, that amount of viral load was not enough to make you sick, the rules have changed with Delta.

And guess what? There is an even scarier version of this virus, Lambda, now growing in South America.

Why bother then? Because something is better than nothing, except for may be synthetic and gaiter-style face coverings which aerosolize particles even more. In addition, when you wear a mask, you, along with those around you, are reminded that we are still in the midst of a PANdemic and that this virus is out there and we should respect each other’s space. I have heard cloth masks compared with seatbelts. Would you rather wear a simple lap belt or a cross body, self locking seatbelt? Which one will protect you more? Lap belts are better than nothing but the latter protects you much more.

N95 and KN95 are readily available these days. They may soon become harder to find once again, given the sharp rise in numbers, but for now, you can get them almost anywhere. Certainly, opt for these types of masks if you will be spending any significant time indoors with other people. Should kids wear N95 masks in school? I think that depends on where you are and what other protocols are being instituted. If you live in Florida, where schools are not even mandating masking, let alone vaccination for eligible kids, I would not send my child to school without an N95. In a community where there is low prevalence of new cases and schools are more vigilant, cloth or a surgical mask may be adequate.

However, if all you have is a cloth mask, wear that. Just like the lap belt. It’s better than nothing.

Mask or not, you MUST vaccinate. Everyone. 

VACCINATE – It is safe, essential, responsible and the right thing to do.

MASK UP – and wear the best one you can. And wear it properly, covering your nose. And STOP touching it.

VENTILATE – Be outdoors. Open windows, use fans and filters…

WASH your hands when necessary.

GET HEALTHY! It’s not a matter of if, but when you are exposed to the virus, your state of health will dictate whether you get sick, for how long and how severely. Especially as ever newer variants arise. The healthier you are, the better your body can combat the virus and the disease it causes. Being overweigh or obese is the #1 chronic disease associated with severe Covid cases.

We are in this together and only together will we adapt to living with this virus.

Stay safe and be well.

AC

I was going to post something else about mask quality but after hearing this interview, I was just so shocked and had to pass it along.

A Dallas, TX administrator said last week that there were no available pediatric ICU beds in the entire city. 

“If your child is in a car wreck, if your child has a congenital defect or, more likely, if your child has covid and needs an ICU bed, your child will have to wait until another child dies”.

What a horrific thought. That we adults would act so irresponsibly by not getting vaccinated and behaving in an irresponsible way by not wearing masks that we would allow our children to die. 

We really should not be too surprised after the almost insignificant changes to gun ownership laws which barely occurred after 20 kids were murdered in Sandy Hook in 2012. Token background checks and a few parks with memorial signs. How many more mass shootings have there been since then? More per capita than the next 10 countries combined.

Another sobering statistic, or at least it should be, is that Florida just reported the most new Covid cases of the entire epidemic. More than 150,000 new cases. Despite that, their politically motivated, ignorant governor continues to ban mask requirements for schools. 4 unvaccinated teachers in one school district have already died this school year, only a few weeks in.

Many hospitals all over the country are full and have no room. Makeshift facilities in parking lots are popping up all over the place.

If you have a car accident, a heart attack, an allergic reaction to a bee sting… your care will be delayed because of the lack of, not only beds, but the staff to care for you.

The burn out medical practitioners were experiencing long before Covid came on the scene, has been magnified dramatically. Same with nurses. Many early retirements and career changes, not to mention facilities essentially “stealing” each others’ employees with enticing financial incentives, have left many facilities understaffed.

If you’re pissed off when your local restaurant brings your meal late and cold because of the lack of servers and cooks, just imagine how you’ll feel if you can’t get to see a doctor when you are really sick!

It may be too little too late, but we can still save many people and put a dent in the damage by GETTING VACCINATED!

If you’ve noticed a little more anger in my posts recently, you’re right. I’m tired and pissed off at peoples’ selfishness. It’s not just a matter of lack of knowledge or understanding. I have conversations every day with people who have not gotten vaccinated and when I ask them why, most of the time they are not giving me any reasonable, rational answer. And when I try to alleviate their concerns or correct their misunderstandings, most of the time, they say that they understand and know.  “I know, I know. I’m still not sure”. What the F%^* is the problem. Just get the shot already and protect your kids, family and friends, not to mention yourself!

All you can do is just keep plowing ahead and do the best you can.

Stay safe and be well.

AC