Octopus Overlords

Isgrimnur wrote:So, a Tuesday? Yes.

malchior wrote: Tue Jan 04, 2022 6:11 pm If I double mask do I just add them together? J/K. I don't N95 but do a surgical w/ a cloth and my only indoor exposures are typically grocery store runs for 10 minutes (I was a speed shopper pre-pandemic anyway).

Is there any reason to expect any difference on the chart between N95 masks and KN95 masks?

El Guapo wrote: Tue Jan 04, 2022 6:12 pm Is there any reason to expect any difference on the chart between N95 masks and KN95 masks?

Alefroth wrote: Tue Jan 04, 2022 6:47 pm I've been wearing the N100 elastomer respirator we talked about in another thread. The M/L feels a little small, but I'm still getting a good seal. It is quite comfortable to breathe in, and has the added bonus of not fogging up glasses. I don't get as many strange looks as I thought I would and even had it complemented by a Lowe's cashier =)

Grifman wrote: Tue Jan 04, 2022 7:46 pm How to commit career suicide in 30 seconds:

https://twitter.com/benwinslow/status/1 ... 70210?s=21

Zarathud wrote: Tue Jan 04, 2022 10:14 pm Chicago Mayor Lightfoot is rambling and shakily blaming teachers before the Union’s vote not to come in tomorrow. She wants to negotiate at the bargaining table and “is tired of it.” No plan, no empathy.

She knows they’re not coming in.

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Jan 04, 2022 10:20 pm I need to see the memo that was clearly circulated to various city and state leaders saying schools must be open at all costs.

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Jan 04, 2022 10:20 pm I need to see the memo that was clearly circulated to various city and state leaders saying schools must be open at all costs.

Kraken wrote: Tue Jan 04, 2022 11:32 pm I know there are many who believe that keeping the kids home is worse than exposing them to covid. For most children, little or no actual learning takes place remotely, and they're suffering from lack of socialization. Furthermore, remote learning is hardest on the least privileged households. IDK enough about kids to form an opinion about that; it sounds plausible to me. Baker is a lame duck who has the freedom to do what he believes is right, so maybe he believes that the needs of the many outweigh the health of the few.

LawBeefaroni wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 12:30 am It's 10:30 PM and as far as I know, still no word from CTU on their "vote" to strike/walk out tomorrow. It's well known they're going to do it but gotta make everyone wait.

Smoove_B wrote:

malchior wrote: Tue Jan 04, 2022 6:11 pm If I double mask do I just add them together? J/K. I don't N95 but do a surgical w/ a cloth and my only indoor exposures are typically grocery store runs for 10 minutes (I was a speed shopper pre-pandemic anyway).

Yeah, upgrade your mask. Or consider getting a face shield which *might* offer additional protection from air flow. And with that, the issue isn't the filtration through the mask fabric, it's the air gaps present around the mask (surgical, fabric) where it meets your face. To be clear, filtration is helping but if you have wide gaps around your mouth and face, air is going to leak in that way every time you inhale - much easier to equalize pressure though those gaps than trying to come in through the fabric.

Yes N95 masks have better filtration media, but one of the big differences is how it fits against your face - namely the additional straps that keep it tight. If this was a virus being spread by larger droplets, I think the surgical and fabric masks would still be viable. But now that we know it's likely spread via airborne particulates, we need a true barrier against the air - which N95 (or equivalent) provides.

Give something like this a whirl. I've been using the Korean style BOTN brand successfully - so much depends on your face shape and comfort preferences. But still...upgrade your mask.

And start scoping out an N100 elastomer mask for whatever is coming next.

Is there any reason to expect any difference on the chart between N95 masks and KN95 masks?

No; they are functionally equivalent. The difficulty is in making sure you have a legit KN95 that is approved as such.

Consumers who try to purchase N95 masks, mainly on Amazon, are often led to vendors selling fake or poorly made KN95s, a Chinese-made mask that is often marketed as an N95 equivalent despite the lack of testing by U.S. regulators to confirm virus-filtering claims.

In fact, KN95 masks offered on Amazon and through other retailers are being sold without authorization for use in health care settings from the Food and Drug Administration, which last July revoked its emergency use authorization for imported masks that lack approval from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a category that includes all KN95s from China.

They include brands like Boncare, which is produced by a company that has repeatedly failed federal testing standards; Yotu, whose manufacturer has also failed European Union testing; and ChiSip, an Amazon top seller whose manufacturer, Chengde Technology, was cited by the C.D.C. for falsely claiming approval by federal regulators.

All but a handful of the 50 best-selling KN95 masks on Amazon are plagued by similar problems, according to an analysis of sales data published by the marketing analytics firm Jungle Scout. Last month, companies that make or sell masks of dubious quality racked up almost $34 million in sales.

El Guapo wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 1:24 am

LawBeefaroni wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 12:30 am It's 10:30 PM and as far as I know, still no word from CTU on their "vote" to strike/walk out tomorrow. It's well known they're going to do it but gotta make everyone wait.

I gotta say...this sounds almost tailor made to alienate parents. Obviously understand the severe health risks that omicron is posing, so not saying that they're wrong to act, BUT not only is this going to create enormous problems for a lot of parents, but being all coy about whether it's actually going to happen or not until the last minute seems completely insane. At least if you give people notice, they can plan to adapt as best they can. On top of that, if they're really doing this tomorrow...like I have to think that a lot of parents aren't going to hear about it in time and will drop their kids off, which seems like a potential shit show.

Really the threat to strike should've been no later than last Monday, and the vote should've been before New Years. But then, it seems like no one in authority can plan ahead these days.

Zaxxon wrote: Tue Jan 04, 2022 6:06 pm Based on the nothing/nothing of 15 minutes, it seems very likely that that chart is based on alpha, no? And therefore wildly optimistic throughout?

The latest evidence about Covid is largely positive. A few weeks ago, many experts and journalists were warning that the initial evidence from South Africa — suggesting that Omicron was milder than other variants — might turn out to be a mirage. It has turned out to be real.

The bottom line

Given the combination of surging cases and milder disease, how should people respond?

Dr. Leana Wen, Baltimore’s former health commissioner, wrote a helpful Washington Post article in which she urged a middle path between reinstituting lockdowns and allowing Omicron to spread unchecked.

“It’s unreasonable to ask vaccinated people to refrain from pre-pandemic activities,” Wen said. “After all, the individual risk to them is low, and there is a steep price to keeping students out of school, shuttering restaurants and retail shops and stopping travel and commerce.”

But she urged people to get booster shots, recommended that they wear KN95 or N95 masks and encouraged governments and businesses to mandate vaccination. All of those measures can reduce the spread of Covid and, by extension, hospital crowding and death.

Different people will make different decisions, and that’s OK. Severely immunocompromised people — like those who have received organ transplants or are actively receiving cancer treatment — have reason to be extra cautious. For otherwise healthy older people, on the other hand, the latest data may be encouraging enough to affect their behavior.

Consider this: Before Omicron, a typical vaccinated 75-year-old who contracted Covid had a roughly similar risk of death — around 1 in 200 — as a typical 75-year-old who contracted the flu. (Here are the details behind that calculation, which is based on an academic study.)

Omicron has changed the calculation. Because it is milder than earlier versions of the virus, Covid now appears to present less threat to most vaccinated elderly people than the annual flu does.

The flu, of course, does present risk for the elderly. And the sheer size of the Omicron surge may argue for caution over the next few weeks. But the combination of vaccines and Omicron’s apparent mildness means that, for an individual, Covid increasingly resembles the kind of health risk that people accept every day.

LawBeefaroni wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 9:32 am

El Guapo wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 1:24 am

LawBeefaroni wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 12:30 am It's 10:30 PM and as far as I know, still no word from CTU on their "vote" to strike/walk out tomorrow. It's well known they're going to do it but gotta make everyone wait.

I gotta say...this sounds almost tailor made to alienate parents. Obviously understand the severe health risks that omicron is posing, so not saying that they're wrong to act, BUT not only is this going to create enormous problems for a lot of parents, but being all coy about whether it's actually going to happen or not until the last minute seems completely insane. At least if you give people notice, they can plan to adapt as best they can. On top of that, if they're really doing this tomorrow...like I have to think that a lot of parents aren't going to hear about it in time and will drop their kids off, which seems like a potential shit show.

Really the threat to strike should've been no later than last Monday, and the vote should've been before New Years. But then, it seems like no one in authority can plan ahead these days.

"Vote" results came through at 11:28 PM last night. Literally 11th hour. No in-person, no remote.

Kurth wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 11:21 am Some good news: Omicron is milder.

Blackhawk wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 9:29 am And yet, there's nowhere else to get them. The only masks that are 'approved' and are good enough to wear can't be purchased, and if you can find them, they're too expensive to buy, and have to be thrown out after limited use and replaced with more masks you can't get.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Blackhawk wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 9:29 am And yet, there's nowhere else to get them. The only masks that are 'approved' and are good enough to wear can't be purchased, and if you can find them, they're too expensive to buy, and have to be thrown out after limited use and replaced with more masks you can't get.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

El Guapo wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 11:21 am

LawBeefaroni wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 9:32 am

El Guapo wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 1:24 am

LawBeefaroni wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 12:30 am It's 10:30 PM and as far as I know, still no word from CTU on their "vote" to strike/walk out tomorrow. It's well known they're going to do it but gotta make everyone wait.

I gotta say...this sounds almost tailor made to alienate parents. Obviously understand the severe health risks that omicron is posing, so not saying that they're wrong to act, BUT not only is this going to create enormous problems for a lot of parents, but being all coy about whether it's actually going to happen or not until the last minute seems completely insane. At least if you give people notice, they can plan to adapt as best they can. On top of that, if they're really doing this tomorrow...like I have to think that a lot of parents aren't going to hear about it in time and will drop their kids off, which seems like a potential shit show.

Really the threat to strike should've been no later than last Monday, and the vote should've been before New Years. But then, it seems like no one in authority can plan ahead these days.

"Vote" results came through at 11:28 PM last night. Literally 11th hour. No in-person, no remote.

Did the Union vote no-remote? Or is the no-remote at least partly the school administrators position as well?

Blackhawk wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 11:55 am Again, the price of the safe option is beyond reasonable reach. $40 for 20 masks time four people in the house - we're talking $160 for 20 uses, and even if we rewear them a couple of times to make sure we get the full 'useful life' out of them, that's still only four to six weeks worth, $100+/month. That's just not possible for us, or for a lot of people.

LawBeefaroni wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 12:21 pm

El Guapo wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 11:21 am

LawBeefaroni wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 9:32 am

El Guapo wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 1:24 am

LawBeefaroni wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 12:30 am It's 10:30 PM and as far as I know, still no word from CTU on their "vote" to strike/walk out tomorrow. It's well known they're going to do it but gotta make everyone wait.

I gotta say...this sounds almost tailor made to alienate parents. Obviously understand the severe health risks that omicron is posing, so not saying that they're wrong to act, BUT not only is this going to create enormous problems for a lot of parents, but being all coy about whether it's actually going to happen or not until the last minute seems completely insane. At least if you give people notice, they can plan to adapt as best they can. On top of that, if they're really doing this tomorrow...like I have to think that a lot of parents aren't going to hear about it in time and will drop their kids off, which seems like a potential shit show.

Really the threat to strike should've been no later than last Monday, and the vote should've been before New Years. But then, it seems like no one in authority can plan ahead these days.

"Vote" results came through at 11:28 PM last night. Literally 11th hour. No in-person, no remote.

Did the Union vote no-remote? Or is the no-remote at least partly the school administrators position as well?

I believe they voted not to show up in-person and CPS shut everything down.

Well, not everything, non-CTU union workers like principals are in and food service workers are in to prepare meals for kids who need them. I also believe many schools are open for kid drop off to some extent. But no education.