The strawberry slushie was good, but unfortunately not that good.
Masks can still get contaminated with bacteria and gunk that you don’t want to breathe. Water will evaporate, but other liquids may leave residues that could attract dirt or allow bacteria to grow. Once it gets stained or dirty, it’s probably good to throw it out even if it technically is still able to filter virus.
My son and I just finished up a study of how COVID spreads among household members (we had to do blood / saliva tests at home and mail stuff off). What I had not realized was that we would be able to see the results of the various tests, online. Just “detected” or “not detected”.
The blood thing: you basically clean a spot on your arm, stick this round button thingy on with adhesive, push a button, and wait a couple minutes while a few drops of blood fill a tube. Almost completely painless. This detects antibodies - per the web page, not current infection, but prior infection or antibodies from vaccination. No surprise, both of ours detected antibodies.
The saliva tubes: 4 of the 10 (we just mailed the last yesterday) detected virus (or virus fragments?). Including the one done this past Monday - 2 full weeks after I started showing symptoms. I was worried about that - was I actually contagious??? - but a friend who’s a biology researcher mentioned that some tests come back positive for weeks, and it doesn’t mean I could still spread it. Hopefully that’s correct.
We’ll do another blood test in 3-4 weeks. In our case, that should certainly show antibodies, which won’t be as interesting if we had not shown them on the first one.
And we get paid. Time to get myself something pretty at Amazon.
Nice!
Is this something different from the rapid tests? Because those should only show a current infection (and as I’ve found, not until your viral load is high enough). I am not familiar with any consumer-grade tests that show antibodies from prior infection or from vaccination.
And of course, since @puzzlegal’s posting in July, I have since had an antibody test as part of a study.
Yes, it’s different. There are three basic types of tests out there:
PCR tests which look (i think) for the generic material of the virus, and are extremely sensitive at measuring bits of virus (live or dead) in your body. The actual test needs to be done in a lab, but you can pay someone to do it without involving a doctor.
Antigen tests, which look for the spike protein. These are rapid tests, and can be done at home.
Antibody tests, which look for antibodies to the viral antigens. There are a lot of details distinguishing these tests. But one big divider is whether they look for antibodies to the spike protein or to the nucleocapsid protein. These are blood tests, so you need to get a blood sample to run the test. Both CVS and qwest will sell these tests direct to the consumer (you go to them for the blood draw). CVS will even give you results while you wait. But the tests you can buy directly look at antibodies to the spike protein, which you should get from either the virus or the vaccine. You need doctor’s orders to get tested for antibodies to the nucleocapsid protein, which you would only have if you were exposed to the virus. (Or the Chinese killed-virus vaccine, i suppose, but few in the west got that.)
This is likely what we did in the home blood test stage of the trial, then. It didn’t occur to be to attempt to track down such a test on my own - then again, it wouldn’t have been useful in our case since we’d all been immunized.
I suppose in theory we could encourage the housemate to get the nucleocapsid test at some point - but it’s not terribly useful, given that people can catch this multiple times (a friend had COVID in June - and again in August!). I guess if reinfection were less of a worry, it might be worth her getting the test.
FYI, this is the device we had to use to collect a blood sample:
My gf attended some sort of advertising gala last Thursday and woke up yesterday with a sore throat. Test was negative and she feels better today.
My wife tested negative for 36 hours and is now sicker than before. Paxlovid rebound is certainly real.
does anyone wash disposable masks before use? they arrive contaminated with things you don’t want to be breathing in. if you’ve ever worked in some sort of factory, where goods are produced and sent out, you’ll know how dirty these things can be.
a year or so ago I went to the grocery store without a mask on. an employee stopped me and tried to hand me one. his cashier hand was holding both sides of the mask. further contaminating it. I declined to wear it and left the store.
also, can anyone smell farts etc when they wear a mask? wondering how well they actually work.
They aren’t designed to prevent individual molecules from passing through them, so you can often smell things through a mask. They are designed to trap particulates. And they trap the smallest particulates by attracting them with a static charge, which you can remove by washing the mask. So it’s a bad idea to wash them. If they are too dirty to use, it’s time to throw them away.
Here’s an article on mask basics by Aaron Collins, who has done a series of YouTube videos testing masks
He has also done question and answer sessions during some of those videos, covering stuff like how masks work and why not to wash them.
Disposable masks like surgical and N95 masks should not be washed. They have special materials which lose effectiveness if they are washed. Quality masks will be produced in factories which are clean enough so that you can wear the mask without worrying about contamination. Fabric masks can be washed, but they don’t really provide much protection against inhaled virus.
Odor molecules are much smaller than virus particles and can pass through the mask easier. The smell will be muted since some of the molecules are still captured, but some can still pass through. A good mask will still protect you even if you can smell things in the environment.
However, one other thing to consider are any gaps around the edges of the mask. Air will take the path of least resistance. The best mask in the world won’t protect you if air can go around the mask. Simple masks like surgical masks often have huge gaps between your face and the edges of the mask. Gaps will mean you inhale lots of unfiltered air when you breathe. Even tiny gaps can let in a surprising amount of air. Be sure you are wearing a well fitting mask so that the air you breathe is forced to pass through the mask fabric. If you can easily smell things in the environment, then it may mean your mask isn’t effective or that air is coming in through the sides.
With a good N95, if it’s properly fitted, if you breathe in hard you should be able to feel the mask pull on your face (this probably won’t be noticeable when you’re breathing normally.)
My office dropped its mask mandate starting today. I just had my first meeting with folks outside my immediate team, and the majority were not wearing masks.
This had me wondering, am I being over cautious, in a way that the general public does not. The general public is full of unknown numbers of MAGAts and stupid people. The folks in this meeting I think of as reasonably intelligent, socially liberal, and contentious. I was by no means alone in wearing a mask; it’s probably reasonable for me because of a planned overseas trip for Christmas. And I know there are folks whose circumstances lead them to be almost literally terrified of the office without a mandate. But I still couldn’t help but wonder.
Peer pressure. Crazy thing, even if unintended. (In which case, it may more be social pressure or pressure to conform.)
Yes, you’re prolly being overly cautious at this point. But who knows. Wait a month and see what happens.
My family and I pushed a bit further weekend before last going and doing the sorts of activities with bigger indoor groups we had been avoiding and now we are all sick. I don’t think it’s COVID, but it’s reminding us that we have all been abnormally healthy for two and a half years.
The point is, COVID is endemic and not going away any time soon. If you are not comfortable with being indoors unmasked at this point…are you prepared to wear a mask forever? I’m not being snarky, this is the choice that’s facing us all. The risk is not going away, and it’s not likely to abate much in the coming years. Nobody in my immediate family has had COVID, but we are all vaccinated now and that’s basically as much protection as we can get. So we’re going and doing things again, and not wearing masks in general. But we recognize that we’re almost certain to end up with COVID at some point.
My wife is finally over Covid after a nasty Paxlovid rebound. Basically a really bad 3-week cold, so I shouldn’t complain. I never got it–yay boosters? I wonder what my immunity is after the booster and weeks of exposure to the virus.
My sister and BIL both have it. Both thoroughly vaccinated, taking paxlovid, and it seems like they’re having relatively mild cases (bad enough to call a doctor, not bad enough to go to hospital). But also both nudging 80.
I don’t think I’ve had it. Due for yet another booster this afternoon. Still masking indoors in public, mostly. Also wondering whether I’ll be doing that for the rest of my life; and whether I’ll ever eat in a restaurant again, or how relaxed I’ll be if I do.
These days it’s N95 or nothing. I’ve basically decided I’ll be wearing a mask on public transportation forever. There is basically no reason not too.
For the foreseeable future, I’ll wear a mask at indoor musicals/shows, anything with a large audience where I’m sitting close to breathing strangers but not communicating with them.
Other than that, no mask.
Yeah, why not?
I mean, there are situation where I don’t wear a mask. But anything involving crowds indoors? I expect I’ll be wearing a mask for the foreseeable future.
The only thing I really miss about this is fine dining. I can do most everything else wearing a mask.