Like I said, it’s cold outside. 
I’ve heard of wearing a surgical mask over an N95 mask mostly to keep the N95 mask a little cleaner for potential reuse. I would think surgical mask under N95 mask would mostly just screw up the N95 mask sealing to your face properly.
An N95 is all you need unless it is too loose. You can wear another mask over it to make it fit tighter to your face. I think you’ll be fine as long as you have your mask for aerosols and keep a reasonable distance from people.
Yeah, the only reason to wear another mask over the n95 is to keep it clean, or if it doesn’t fit properly, i guess you might snug it down. But really, if you are buying n95s, you should buy ones that fit you.
There is no reason to put a surgical mask under an N95, that would just unseal it, and make it no better than a surgical mask.
Walk fast!
Can you check in and sit in your car until the mechanics are ready? That could limit your inside time. Is there anywhere in walking distance where you can be warm and feel safer?
I’m pretty blasé about Covid anymore. I’m vaxxed and boosted. I’ve had delta. I embrace masking and social distancing. My career of public service taught me to hate people so avoiding crowds is not a tribulation. I’m pretty sure I’ll get this version or a later one, but realistically, it’s like climate change. Nothing I can do to change anything, it’s in the paws of Bast now.
Our neighbor, who is 60 and in great health, is retiring because of COVID.
For years he’s commuted to a job 80 miles away, working four twelve hour days a week. For the last ten years he has shared the driving with another guy who lived locally. The guy was a Trumper/CT/YoungEarthCreationist (while my neighbor is normal), but sharing driving responsibility made the commute doable.
My neighbor is vaccinated/booster but wore a mask everyday in the truck because the other guy was antivaxx (of course).
Last week the covidiot called off of work with a cold. The next day he was hospitalized and two days later he was dead. We learned all of this via text message, as our neighbor has quarantined. He gave notice at work, but has three weeks accumulated leave and so he’s now retired.
I’m not sure how much good a 2nd mask really does in practice. Air will take the path of least resistance. If there are gaps around the sides of the second mask, then inhaled air will come through the open sides. Air is not going to go through two layers of masks when it can go through one. If you could really have the second mask completely cover the first mask then that would be better, but that’s typically not how I see a second mask fit when people wear them. If you don’t notice increased difficulty inhaling with a second mask, then likely the air is not going through the second mask.
However, a second mask probably does a better job of protecting the environment from any virus you exhale. I would imagine that the second mask provides an opportunity to catch some of the virus which may be in exhaled droplets.
Our Admin forwarded an email this morning. One of my coworkers says, ‘I’ve been feeling off for the last 2 days, chills, hot flushes, mild headache and joint pains.’ She can’t get a PCR test with her doctor until Thursday, so she’s going to try urgent care places. She’s hoping it’s menopause and not COVID.
Our Admin reports her daughter(?) has tested positive for COVID and is experiencing mild symptoms. It sounds like her whole family except for her granddaughter are fully vaccinated. Since she has been exposed, she’s working from home until she knows more.
She found a rapid test somewhere, and it came back negative. No news from our Admin.
One unvaccinated coworker – who has had COVID – said he’s off to get his weekly test. In our office, if you’re not vaccinated, you have to be tested weekly and submit the results to the president. Coworker is complaining that the tests are now $50. Cash. Hey, coworker, you know how much a vaccination costs? Nothing!
I know, I should’ve turned around and went home the instant I realized how unusually difficult it was to find parking at the grocery store, but like a moron, I went in anyway. The lines were fantastically, unusually long for whatever reason. I was masked with a (K)N95, and only saw six or seven people who were unmasked or not wearing theirs properly, which granted, is remarkable given how many people were there.
But I only saw one other N95 there, so everybody else was effectively unmasked. By the number of people, I’d say it’s a certainty I was exposed to Omicron, and probably 90% that I have it right now. This renders the test I took earlier in the day completely useless, and I’ve got no one to blame but myself and my complete irresponsibility.
At least I think I have enough between the trip and DoorDash to last through a quarantine. How long should it be before I show symptoms? I’m trying to figure out how long to wait before canceling my brake job on Thursday morning.
Dude, I’m not a doctor, but I think you need to chill a bit. Most grocery stores have good ventilation and high ceilings. You’re wearing a high-quality mask. Most other people are wearing masks. Unless you were pulling your mask off and running up to hug other shoppers, your chances of high enough exposure to be infected is low (assuming you’re vaccinated).
Hopefully/probably you’re right. But in my defense, all those vaccinated people getting breakthrough cases are getting it somehow. I guess this being such a major vector is unusual for me.
I’ve been thinking that any indoor space that (a) was spacious, (b) had working HVAC, and (c) and was not shoulder-to-shoulder crowded was a pretty COVID-safe environment – especially when customers are/were near universal in masking (even wearing the dread cloth masks).
I wonder if grocery shopping is a different spatial experience in different areas of the country. Around here, excepting on the days before holidays or the days before a hurricane is predicted to come ashore … it’s trivial to avoid people at the grocery store. But maybe in a large northeastern U.S. city … groceries tend to physically smaller buildings and tend to be crowded all the time?
I hadn’t looked at the Worldometer for a long time. I’ve just been checking CDC’s website for case and death counts in the U.S.A.
I just looked at the Worldometer website now. Do you think 4,600 deaths for all of China for the entire pandemic is accurate?
The two concerned coworkers are both in the office today. The first one said she stuck garlic up her nose, and that drained her sinuses. She says she feels fine except for whatever’s left of the sinus issue. I heard the Admin, but didn’t see her. I guess she tested negative?
Of course once I post, new information comes in.
The Admin tested negative yesterday. (Obviously, since she’s in the office.) She had the PCR test. But it sounded like a royal pain in the neck to get it, with waiting in the cold and wet for a couple hours (drive-through sites are booked out at least a week, so she had to find a walk-in), the testing staff running out of documentation forms, drivers’ licenses, insurance numbers, and photos before you could take the test… And the line was still wrapped around the block after that.
Admin also shared, ‘My daughter told me that St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tacoma has a capacity of 688 and currently has over 900 patients now and are NOT accepting any more covid patients at this time.’
My spouse’s stepfather has it. She and the kids were last together with him on the 29th. He started having symptoms on the 2nd. According to what I’m reading, it’s unlikely they were exposed, because incubation with Omicron is 2-3 days. But we’ll still test. I hope the kids can still go to school, but I also am pretty shocked that the school hasn’t gone to remote learning temporarily. We don’t know yet how many people are out with Covid, but with quarantining from exposure and the holiday surge, it’s got to be a lot.
I’m right there with you. I had to stop at a rest area on a road trip yesterday. I was in/out in 2.5 minutes with N95 but I don’t feel any level of confidence right now. Have to take my boyfriend for a colonoscopy tomorrow (home pre-test results made the scope mandatory) and that just feels like the toll of doom…
Yesterday I ran into an acquaintance who I hadn’t seen in a while. He and his wife both got Covid late in 2020. They were laid up for a while, but did not require hospitalization, and they have both fully recovered. I do not know if they have received vaccinations and I didn’t ask.
Our pleasant conversation turned sour when he said that he wished that the government had focused its efforts on better methods of treatment of those that contracted the virus, instead of pushing for vaccinations.
I told him that I wasn’t going to argue the point, at which time our conversation ended.
I must confess that this is the first time I’ve heard this argument. Is this a new talking point for the anti-vaxxers? Or am I just out of the loop?
What a weird argument. There’s been tons of research into treatments, some funded by the government, some by companies that hope to profit. There’s been an unprecedented sharing of information between companies, too. And hey, we have some treatments among existing drugs, some new drugs, and more stuff in the pipeline.