Hey Davej - my kids will only wear the cat and jack target masks. I have a 6 year old and they fit him really well. It doesn’t hurt that they are cheap and have cute patterns. We have tried every brand imaginable and keep going back to target.
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DD6 likes the Kids Contour Mask from the Gap. It has three layers of cotton,
adjustable ear straps, and wire to shape it over the nose; on the downside, I don’t think it’s made in the US. The accordion ones from the Gap are okay too, but they don’t have the adjustable ear straps. DS8 has a big head and can squeeze into the Gap accordion ones, but the SwaddleDesigns 3-layer masks work better for him. I’m pretty sure they’re made in the US, but they don’t have the adjustable ear strap and nose piece. They still provide good coverage for him, but they’re big on my DD6.
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Athleta has kids sizes ones meant for up to age 8. The colors are geared to girls, but they have been clearancing them out.
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Ah, that would make more sense. I may need to go look for that study and see if it’s been peer reviewed and if that came up.
Still, I had never considered the idea of a less virulent seed variant.
I really hope they are successful in getting a satisfactory origin story just so all the noise around that can get put to rest.
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Testing might help more 
I agree! Per this article the death toll reflects 1.54% of the 5,166 confirmed breakthrough cases, but as @PrincipalTinker pointed out, we may not be catching all of the milder/asymptomatic breakthrough cases.
According to ourworldindata.org, the case fatality rate in the US has been around 1.8% for a while; I’d expect the CFR for vaccinated people be much lower than 1.5%. My best guess is that there are a bunch of breakthrough cases that aren’t being detected, so the CFR for breakthrough cases should be lower; in other words, that far fewer than 1.5% of the breakthrough cases are resulting in death, but we’re not getting a good count of the actual number of breakthrough cases. According to the MA covid website, the 7-day average of percent positivity is 1.18%, up from the low of 0.32% reported on June 24, 2021. That kind of uptick in the positive rate can suggest the virus is actually spreading faster than the growth seen in confirmed cases.
Edited to add: I was poking around and found this article, where Davidson Hamer, a Boston University specialist in infectious diseases, noted his surprise about the amount of severe cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
“It’d be important for the state to analyze whether these people who were hospitalized and died were immunocompromised, if they had underlying conditions or some sort of other risk factors,” he said.
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This was a tweet today from Dr. Eric Topol
(who I recommend following for the latest on Covid). For the vaccinated, I think this is overall very good news. Seems like a lot of breakthrough cases, but very low hospitalizations and deaths. That said, I would like to also know about how long Covid shakes out after breakthrough cases. Likely too early to know that at this point.
“On “breakthrough” infections post-vaccination in India.
~5% of >28,000 healthcare workers with mild symptoms, 0.29% led to hospitalization, no deaths; they were 83% suppressed by AZ and Bharat Biotech vaccines”
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President Macron of France:
Of course you may counter (if you’re from my adopted state of NH): Live free or die!
Fine. Die it is, then. Your choice.
Except read these words from a physician in AL, the state with the lowest rate of vaccinations: “One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late.”
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The reporting on this has been really interesting. Lots of protests, but vaccine appointments are way up, from what I’m reading? Do you know what ages are eligible to be vaccinated in France?
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I don’t know without googling it.
But Macron is demonstrating leadership. Something that has been massively lacking elsewhere.
Next stop: leadership on climate change. But that’s another thread.
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I googled it.
18 and over.
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It’s about time a political leader said it!
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My kids have been using these disposable Korean KF94 “3D masks” (boat style) with the free plastic ear savers that you can request during checkout. There’s a code on the page to get them for $88 shipped.
If you didn’t want to commit to a bulk order of a particular brand/size, they also have a variety pack where you can try a few different ones to see which fits best:
I’ve bought masks from them a few times, as they are based in NJ, and they import the masks directly from Korea - didn’t want to mess with potential counterfeits on Amazon or eBay, etc.
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In other news, here’s the latest on the US opening up its borders (tl;dr it’s not going to and it won’t say when it will).
This continues to blow my mind. How much longer can you survive as an fenced-in island?
Oh, you think the US is so great it doesn’t need the rest of the world to come visit? Check out these sexy numbers. (Click to see full graphic.)
During the Clinton administration you were out-trading China 3:1. USA NUMBER ONE.
By the end of the W Bush administration that had been reversed. Obama and Trump stopped the decline. Neither reversed it. Your golden age is over.
But sure, keep the borders closed nice and tight.
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I’m trying to understand how this works in practice. How does this give more freedom to his (presumably unvaccinated) adolescent daughters? Are under 18s exempt from the requirement? Or is he just talking about long term implications of getting the pandemic under control?
Wait…I just tried to find the ages of his daughters and now I’m even more confused…he has 3 grown stepchildren, one of whom was a high school classmate of his? Now I’m really off on a rabbit trail…
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We’ve all been locked down to stop the spread of the virus and to have time to get the population vaccinated. Vaccination works. We’re done with lockdown now. The only reason to continue would be to protect the deliberately unvaccinated. Well, screw them. Let them stay indoors.
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Right, but he seems to indicate this somehow helping his unvaccinated(?) adolescent daughters? How?
The benefits to vaccinated individuals are apparent.
Maybe something is just lost in translation.
Because they can safely go outside and live again in a world of vaccinated people. Unvaccinated adults can stay indoors. There’s nothing for them to do outdoors. They can’t go anywhere.
His daughters can benefit from herd immunity.
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So under 18s are exempt from the requirement? They will be allowed to go all those places even though they are unvaccinated? That’s what I haven’t been able to find in anything I’ve read so far.
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I just heard of a breakthrough case as well. The molecular manager of the covid lab and her whole family (parents, etc) all are vaccinated and tested positive two weeks ago. Upon hearing that went right to the masks in the lab and grabbed one. No more indoor for me unless I’m masked!!
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I’m thankful our YMCA camp still requires masks while indoors.