The breakouts for hospitalizations + deaths for vaxxed vs unvaxxed is what I’m tracking for my state. It’s annoyingly not consistently reported. But so far vaxxed hospitalizations seem very low.
I’m desperately tired of being my own statistician too.
This is exactly how I feel.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong.
Basically unvaxxed people can now have a longer window before the fest to show a negative test. 72 hours. Apparently the Dutch festival that was a superspreader event allowed 40 hours, which gave people time to get infected between testing and show.
ARGH.
We were thinking of going to the movies on Friday but with the new guidance coming, I don’t think we will. I am not interested in a movie if I have to mask–they make my glasses fog up and also I require a snack.
CDC urges population to flip a coin, heads=mask, tails= no mask. Repeat every 15 minutes.
Fellow glasses-wearer here, I definitely had to do a lot of trial & error to find ones that fit right and didn’t fog me up. They’re out there! Keep trying! Worth it because who knows how long we’ll need them…
I have decided that people are generally gross - plus aside from the grocery store, the times I’m going to be around lots of people will be related to childcare and I already thought children were little germ factories - so I’m expecting to wear a mask till next spring at the least. The next few months will be because of Covid, then it’ll be cold/flu season. I’ve really enjoyed not having colds this past year so I’m fine with wearing a mask.
I was grumpy about wearing them at first because the ones I was trying didn’t fit right. Now that I have well-fitting options, I am pro-mask forever!
I thought Meg Ranneys twitter thread on the CDC change was worth reading:
https://twitter.com/meganranney/status/1420128990317121539?s=21
Nevada just instituted a mask mandate for many of the counties with high rates of positivity. This will be interesting because there’s lots of emphasis on individual freedom here. It will be worse in rural areas and people may conform more in the cities. I always keep a mask in my purse just in case.
I bought a pack of 100 nose wire thingies off ebay (flat metal strip, basically) at the start of all this, and they’ve been working really well in my handmade masks. They do eventually break at the bend point, so my next project is going back and adding an easily accessible slot for them, instead of sewing them into the mask, if that makes sense.
It does make sense! My mom was the mask maker, and a lot of mine are broken now after repeated wear/washing. I’ll have to ask if she could try this method if she makes more.
Some of the patterns I initially looked at had a wire slot, but I just completely skipped past it as an unnecessary fiddly optimization 
I use pipe cleaners (actually I think they are for cleaning guns? My mom got them from my dad and they are thicker than regular ones). So far I have only had 1 mask wear out and I just tossed it.
I just use a piece of bias tape sewn onto the inside of the mask and then you can use a nose wire or take it out (I remove them for washing.)
I tried a bunch of different things for nose wires, and I like a kind of heavyweight beading wire the best - it’s easy to shape to fit your nose.
My workplace (grocery store) is not requiring masks again, but they’re strongly encouraging employees to mask up. (This is basically the county’s new guidelines-- strongly encouraging people to mask indoors regardless of vaccination status). So yesterday was my last mask-free shift.
Trying to decide if it’s ethical to pick up a pack of the disposable surgical masks. They’re actually more comfortable for me to wear than the cloth ones…
eta: My county is not a hot spot. But cases are still ticking up
100% ethical imo. you’re not depriving people working with Covid patients (they’re wearing n95s), you are working with the public, and they are technically safer than reusable ones.
Thanks for the brain-check!
I’m supposed to be on a plane to Denmark in 5 weeks. I’m feeling…middling…about the likelihood of that.
My work sent out an emotional rollercoaster of an email. For context we’re definitely in a high transmission area. Florida gonna Florida.
Everyone in the building must wear masks… - Yay!
…unless they are socially distanced or working alone at their desk - Less yay.
Any employee in the building must have gotten a vaccine or had a negative test within the last week… - Yay!
… but we’re not going to require proof of any of that. - Less yay. (I mean, I get it, but I don’t have to like it.)
There’s a team lunch next week I wasn’t super comfortable about attending before, if it was not eating I’d be more comfortable with it. I’m moving more towards not wanting to go as the days go by. It’s possible it will be rainy that day, or not rainy till the afternoon, so who knows if the weather will allow eating outside in +90F/33C heat instead.