Everyone in my house has Covid except me. Yay me
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Everyone doing ok?
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The kids have had mild symptoms. DW was hit hard two days ago and miserable but getting better now. Iām just waiting for it to hit me.
DD3 got it from daycare last week when I was in WDW. The ironyā¦
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I hope everyone recovers quickly.
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Hope everyone is fully recovered very soon.
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I think it is not unusual for manufacturing facilities located in the US to use M95 standards instead of KN95 standards. Here is an explanation that I found that seems to be consistent with what Iāve heard elsewhere:
That last bit is why itās important to use a source that is confirming the authenticity of the masks they are selling. (My understanding is that Amazon and eBay do not.)
I think this is the Mask Nerdās (wink wink) way of saying they really are the exact same mask, just made at different facilities that chose to label them as meeting the standards of the US vs China. (I suspect to avoid anti-China sentiments.)
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And if youāre not following Dr G, you need to be.
https://twitter.com/dglaucomflecken/status/1482494022472007681?s=21
His previous takes on the CDC guidelines are also
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Iām not certain, but I donāt think it is a US standard. The only US standard that I know of is N95. I just came across this on webmd when I did a web search for M95:
Thereās one company selling a mask it calls an m95 model, a term the company devised.
The article didnāt give any company names. Have you come across any other companies that use the M95 standard? The only ones Iāve seen are VIDA/Lutema (and I agree, it seems like the Mask Nerd was saying that theyāre selling at least one mask thatās the same, so they seem interconnected in some way). So is M95 is a āstandardā created by a company or manufacturer (possibly Breathh, Inc.?), not an independent 3rd party? Even if M95 was just made up by the manufacturer - and I donāt know whether thatās the case - it doesnāt mean the masks are bad. They may be great. I donāt like the lack of clarity on the origin of the M95 designation, though; it makes me wary. Maybe Iām overly suspicious? 
Yup, though itās tempting to go Amazon or eBay when supplies are so hard to find elsewhere! Still waiting for Bona Fide masks I ordered on Jan 3 (and the Birdy masks I ordered from Yes!Mask 2 days ago) to ship.
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Well, there are a quite a few on eBay but I donāt know if that adds or subtracts legitimacy? Even an M95c for kidsā¦ 
Maybe that is the case. I think for these specific masks, if Mask Nerd is vouching for their quality, theyāre probably ok.
Mini Rant: Itās absolutely ridiculous that at this point, weāre relying on a guy called Mask Nerd who tests masks in his home bathroom. How is this our plan???
I mean, Iām thankful heās doing it. Truly. But. 
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Are there KN95s that have been proven to be less effective than cloth masks?
Did you see the reports when MA gave out two types of KN95s to all schools?
MIT tested the masks that were untested before they were distributed. They have a ā filtration efficiency rate of over 98%.ā
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Well, we had a good run so far, but DD24 tested positive today. You may recall that she was going on a trip out west and I was concerned about her bringing it back to us. She was supposed to fly back yesterday and we were to pick her up. Planning on masking etc. Her flight got changed to today due to the big storm. She (rapid) tested today because she was flying and coming home and it was positive. She said she had a tickle in her throat yesterday and had to clear it a bit. We are glad she didnāt come yesterday (might not have picked it up.) I talked to her on the phone and she sounded a bit hoarse today but she says she feels fine.
Anyway, sheās now there for at least 5 more days? Symptoms started yesterday and sheās hoping to fly back on Saturday. She will test and if no symptoms and negative plus masking, I guess that will be ok by CDC rules. Still worried about our exposure, though.
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Since the counterfeits arenāt made to any kind of standards, they can be all over the place in what you get. You might get ones that are just as good as what they are knocking off. Below is what I found looking quickly:
āAt KHNās request, ECRI, a nonprofit that helps health care providers assess the quality of medical technology, agreed to test the masks that sparked the New Jersey nursesā concern. Tests of a dozen masks showed that they filtered out 95 percent or more of the 0.3-micron particles theyāre expected to catch.ā
āWeāre kind of scratching our heads trying to understand this situation, because itās not as black and white as I would have expected,ā Lavanchy said. āIāve looked at other masks we knew were counterfeit, and they usually perform terribly.ā
āYet, as months passed, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Harvard University, MIT and ECRI discovered that KN95s didnāt meet the high standard: 40 percent to 70 percent of the KN95s failed their tests, and some filtered out only 30 percent of the tiny particles.ā
āIf possible, not a cloth or surgical one. These masks are moderately effective at capturing particles coming out of your own mouth ā what we engineering nerds call āsource controlā. But they offer little protection against incoming particles. We call this part ā how well the mask protects the wearer ā respiratory protection.ā [Note: This was where the notion came from āI wear a mask to protect you, and you wear a mask to protect meā that we need to upgrade and move beyond. Upgrading really helps in situations where others arenāt masking.]
āA typical cloth mask, while better than nothing, only provides around 30-60% protection to the wearer. Surgical masks, while better at 40-80%, lack a tight fit to the face, resulting in large amounts of leakage around the mask.ā. [Note: Tight fit is really important. When the elastic starts to give out, replace the mask.]
With my family, Iām assuming the KN95s we can buy easily off Amazon could be counterfeit, but are likely to be better than our cloth masks (especially since DH and DS17 were wearing Underarmor ones that were single layer). We used the Amazon ones instead of cloth masks waiting for our ones from Bona Fide to arrive, and Iāll keep some on hand as backups in case we need to cover gaps between Bona Fide orders. Weāre also using them as āgiveawayā masks, spares to keep in our cars, etc until weāve built up to that level of the Bona Fide ones.
ETA: Iāve now ordered about 6 weeks worth of Bona Fide ones for our family since the wait time is high right now, plus enough to get DD20 and her BF through at college to spring break since we may not see them. I know theyāre getting slammed, so while theyāre cheap enough Iād love to have plenty on hand to give out, I also want them to be available to people actively seeking them.
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Houston seems to have peaked at a ridiculous high place, but the hospital admissions seemed to have peaked as well, at a place not much different than the Delta wave, so the decoupling of cases to hospitalizations seems to have held here.
Otherwise, itās still bananas. So very many people I know have or have had covid this round. We are no longer receiving regular school updates for campus cases.
We will be at WDW a month from now.
It seems a bit ridiculous to feel this way in the middle of it all, but my hope for 2022 is that it will be the year we donāt have to cancel all the things.
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If youāre looking for kids KF94, tiger masks are back in stock at Be Healthy.
Yep, I bought the 100 pack. Fight me. (They have smaller packs too)
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He cracks me up! I found him on TikTok. He has a series about cardiology ve nephrology that is hysterical. Itās the never ending battle we fought with heart failure patients 
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Also- if you are looking for toddler masks, we are really happy with the Vida extra small masks. They fit DD2 (3 yo tomorrow!) really well.
We are also stuck waiting for Bona Fide as well.
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Cardiology DH sent me this exact one
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I have to admit, a lot of his stuff goes right over my head. The stuff I get is pretty hilarious. And even the stuff I donāt get, the #medtwitter world so appreciates it makes me happy.
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This line from this article has been cracking me up all day. I mean I literally canāt stop from laughing loudly enough to draw my kidsā attention: CDC's suggestion to cancel football, band in nearly every US school called 'unrealistic' | CNN.
āPart of the problem, Schaffner and others say, is that CDC scientists are sometimes stuck in a bubble.
āYouāve got nerds ā literally science nerds ā who are writing these things,ā said Dr. Otis Brawley,ā¦ā
Is anyone else hearing this in their heads???
Revenge of the Nerds - NERDS! - YouTube
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