I’ve been to several clinics for appointments recently. In two cases, I’d walked a long way on a very warm (80s) day. In each case my temp was 97-point-something. The 97 range is normal for me. The two women who entered behind me at one clinic were in the low 98 range, and they’d walked from their cars. Body temp doesn’t rise that fast, and perspiration helps keep it within the normal range. I read that the CDC defines 100.4 degrees as a fever, so even if your body temp rises slightly, you’re probably OK.
The strain of COVID that’s spread around the world is the “mutation” described in the article, not a new variant. No cause for concern. 
Anyone seen any of these kinds of portable powered air respirators in action:
Basically, it’s a little air supply with filter that attaches to a mask. It doesn’t provide enough air to breathe on it’s own, but it seems like the supplemental air would make it easier to have the mask on for long periods of time.
Not sure if we ever had a thread like “tell me something good about the COVID pandemic” but I’ll do it now. First of all, I’m retired, so it makes a minimum of difference to me in the greater scheme of things, and no difference in terms of income. As a homeowner it might have made me uneasy in terms of real estate values, but for some reason home sales around here are going like gangbusters and prices are up significantly over last year.
But anyway, my main point here is that I had a doctor’s appointment today and thankfully had the presence of mind to call ahead and confirm that it was an in-person appointment, which it turned out it was NOT. And this is great. It’s the second virtual appointment I’ve had, mainly to renew prescriptions, and I love it. My doctor is excellent but, precisely because she’s really thorough, always runs late. Taking a phone call while lazing around in my dressing gown sure beats driving to a medical office and wasting my time sitting around with sick people and being bored.
I guess a lot of working folks feel the same way about working from home in their pajamas instead of dressing up and going to the office! It does lead to some odd moments like an otherwise very professional radio interview the other day where the interviewer excuses herself and goes to a break because her young kids have just barged into the room and one of them is crying!
I nominate wolfpup for the “there’s a pony in the room somewhere” award. 
It looks to me like it might be more comfortable for the wearer, but would increase exposure of everyone around you to your germs. It’s like having a mask with a valve, only moreso. That extra air going in has to go somewhere. In the pictures in the second listing, it even shows a diagram of the air flowing out the sides of the mask.
Thank you, but I don’t think the horse poop iconography was really necessary. Sometimes there really is a (tiny) pony in the room. COVID is an absolutely horrible thing that has killed many, made life miserable for millions, and tanked the economy, but the stay-at-home aspect of it can nevertheless be regarded as a small silver lining. 
In the same spirit in which this whole experience may encourage more working from home in cases where it was deemed “impossible”, I hope it encourages more virtual medical appointments where feasible, where sometimes a personal visit is really a waste of time. Today’s tele-consult was not a mere routine formality. The doctor extended my prescriptions via fax to the pharmacy, but also said that doing so without some updated lab tests was not good medical practice, insisted I get it done soon, and emailed me a signed requisition. But … all without my making a personal appearance, which traditionally would have been considered mandatory.
The “extra air” would have no more virus in it than any other air that you haven’t inhaled/exhaled, would it? The idea is that it’s the same amount of air you already breathe, but it comes up through the hose.
The majority of it will be coming out when you are exhaling. Some might come out when you’re not. But if it goes out the sides, it will contain exhaled air and air that’s been exposed to the droplets on the inside of the mask, and it won’t be filtered through the mask. It’s filtering incoming air, but not so much the outgoing air.
There’s no indication air is coming out the sides. That diagram with arrows isn’t necessarily demonstrating air escaping out the sides of the mask, I think it’s showing that air flows up the tube at your face. The ad says the mask is 5-ply and it looks to fit the face well. You adjust the fan speed depending on how light or hard you’re inhaling, so there shouldn’t be extra air flow if you have it adjusted to your own breathing.
You’re right. I just wanted an excuse to use the poop emoji.
I’ve been reading articles about families that are discovering that they just enjoy hanging out together without having so many activities to go to. And parents who are getting to know their kids and discovering they really like them.
Same with the telemedicine being extended to more people. It was already a thing because I wrote proposals when it was first getting off the ground about 15 years ago. Necessity has widened accessibility and that’s a good thing.
In the reviews for the first one, one of the longer reviews says this:. “This actually comes with 2 masks that are basically lined all the way around with tiny exhaust holes.”
I’m glad to have this time with our college graduate living at home. Without the pandemic, she would have graduated and been off to some other city to start her new life. But now we get to have this time to get to know her as an adult. Hopefully she still gets to move away at some point.
Oh, no, I didn’t see that! That’s kind of baffling… (pun intended)
It’s possible they are mistaken – there’s no picture, but I would be very suspicious about it. Also, even if you’re supposed to pick the appropriate fan setting so that you don’t have extra air flowing out, I doubt everyone will do that. I mean, I see lots of people wearing valved masks whenever I go out. One of the reviews even showed it hooked up on one side of a mask with a valve on the other side. At that point, you just have a continuous flow of filtered air in and unfiltered out.
Positive pressure respirators are widely used to protect people from breathing stuff in. The air flows out wherever. Even those bio-hazard suits don’t have closed air return.
Negative pressure respirators – masks where you suck air in through a filter – are a lot more work, and in industrial settings you sometimes have to give people breathing breaks.
Surgical mask are just designed to stop you breathing droplets onto a patient. If the patient is really infectious, you wear a positive pressure respirator, and put the patient in a negative-pressure room. If the surgical team is really infectious, they should stay at home…
Surgical theaters are sometimes positive-pressure, laminar flow, but that’s to stop it from sucking in germs from outside. And the surgical team are supposed to clean and dissinfect. I haven’t seen any mention of negative-flow personal equipment except for the odd negative-flow suit for infected patients.
My spouse was tested for Covid this morning. We think chances are very low that it will be positive, but still it’s weird to have to wait for results. She’s had a gastrointestinal illness for close to a week, finally called the doctor, and the doc wanted to rule Covid out since it can start out that way in some people.
If she has it, I have it. So, now we’re avoiding going out until we get the results. Supposed to be only a day or two until we know.
^^ Fingers crossed!
Even the comfortable middle class is different, though more fragile. We could end up moving right into poverty, unlike the wealthy.
Just been talking to family about COVID in England. National Health Workers were
(1) sent a ‘Do Not Attend’ letter if their employer had reason to believe (by age or health condition) that they might be susceptible. The ‘Do Not Attend’ letter explicitly meant that if they got sick at work they would not be covered by workers insurance or sick leave: powerful reasons to not attend. And
(2) (for those not classed as specifically susceptible) were told that if they died, they’d get 80,000 GBP plus a dependents pension – but only if they had a will that nominated the recipient. So for a while there, everybody in the NHS was writing a will. Kind of like a ‘death letter’ for people going into combat.
Our contact has had a ~1000+ die in her hospital, and everyone she knows has been infected. Asked how that made her feel, she said … invincible …