Yeah, this is going just swimmingly…
^Oldish article, but just to substantiate who she is
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We fought the good fight, but….Yesterday was day 0 for our household’s first case of Covid. My husband. He fainted, and my 5’5” 110 lb frame kept his 6’2” 195lb frame from hitting his head as he fell (learned to do that the hard way a decade ago when I did NOT keep his head from hitting the wall in a similar incident). In the process, my cheek bone and under eye collided with our, thankfully round, kitchen table edge. Left me with an abrasion and a black eye.
Fun times. 
I didn’t even have an inkling it was Covid. No respiratory symptoms, no head ache. And he’s done this before with blood pressure drop when getting up in the morning. I had to tell him he was sick and not going to church when I saw his face. A minute or so of “discussion” (re: him telling me he was fine…me saying, no you do not look fine, you’re going back to bed). Then the fainting. So I sat with him in our family room for 6 hours until pieces of the puzzle fell into place, fatigue set in….and then figured out he should take a test.
So now he’s isolating. We shall see what happens for me. Does not feel promising. My 17 y/o daughter was mostly out of pocket. And my 19 y/o son is at college. I reallllllly pray my daughter doesn’t get it.
Meanwhile, husband is allergic to PEG so he took 2 J&J Vax, no boosters as we have been waiting on more people to take novavax before he jumped into that.
Called mobile doc for appt today to get paxlovid Rx. My hubby is 49, no underlying conditions, but I was hopeful he could get a Rx since his ability to vaccinate is less than ideal. But as I struggled to sleep last night, it struck me to look up paxlovid to see if it has PEG. It does. 
allergist confirmed he should not take it.
We have a lot of caretaker duties for my 84 yo dad & my sister who has Down’s syndrome and has become bed ridden in the last year. So we are as careful as we can be. My husband and I wear a mask in public always. No exceptions. Even in an empty building in case someone was there just prior to us. But my daughter plays basketball. Hubby attended those high school games all season….three last week for playoffs. I watch online other than a handful of low attended games.
So I guess that’s where he got it. Kn95 mask no match for whatever sub variant found him.
I knew it would happen, but I really thought hubby and I would have warning because we figured daughter or son would be the one to bring it into our home since they are the ones out and about, not masked much of the time (basketball/college).
Just thought the PEG anecdotes and the unfortunate failure of the kn95 might be of interest to the well informed crowd here. We really need more treatment options for immunocompromised and those with allergies!! And Osterholm is probably right that we need to up the ante to n95s at this point.
Send prayers and hopeful thoughts my way.
As always, thank you to each one who shares ways to mitigate risk and share knowledge about Covid and such here. Grateful for a place to share.
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I hope your husband feels better soon and that you don’t catch it. For what it is worth, before DD7 tested positive, I took multiple coughs directly to my unmasked face. I masked after she tested positive. Neither DW or I caught it from DD7 or DS5. After the positive test, we opened windows, ran HEPA filters and DW and I masked except when sleeping and eating (in a different room than the kids). So it is not a forgone conclusion that you will catch it.
I think one issue with the KN95s with ear loops is getting a good seal around the nose rather than the protection of the mask itself. I shave my head and am able to get a very good seal with the N95 head straps. I wear the KN95 sometimes, but don’t feel like I get as good a seal as I do with the N95.
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Best wishes for a mild case and rapid recovery.
A few thoughts on KN95’s vs N95’s:
- Although the two standards are comparable in theory, there is greater accountability and quality control with the US N95 standard vs the Chinese KN95 standard
- NPR quotes the Mask Nerd that N95’s with head straps allow a better seal than KN95’s with ear straps
- Even N95’s aren’t proof, unfortunately. They block 95% of particles, but with a long enough duration you can still receive an infectious dose of virus. There was a chart in the WSJ a year back that I believe said exposure time to infectious dose was 15min with no mask, 20 min w/cloth mask, 30min w/surgical mask, and 2.5hrs w/N95. (Pre XBB variant)
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I was at a 1.5 hour wedding ceremony yesterday in an N95. About 150 people in relatively small room. I saw a total of 5 masks. Hopefully the 2.5 hours holds up for me!
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If it’s the same chart I’ve seen floating around, it’s basically napkin math, not based on modeling or actual studies. They used the presumed % filtration effectiveness for each category and then used the 15 min exposure time that the CDC threw out back in 2020 (that was pretty much just an educated guess to start with, not based on anything scientific either). They have never really nailed down a correlate for an infectious dose. And none of the above is adjusted for the later variants being more transmisible.
100% for 15 min = 1500
1500 / 10% = 150 minutes = 2.5 hours
That’s how they came up with the chart.
From a “what mask is better” comparison, it’s a helpful graphic, but the minutes themselves are pretty speculative. We can tell right off that the chart is suspect because it’s symmetrical and they have established that the infected person masking is more effective than vice versa. 
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Yep, that’s the chart I remember. Thanks for the valuable context - all it’s really telling you is more filtration is better 
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I’m so sorry. Definitely doing this. Please keep us posted.
Good catch. Maybe this is a situation where molnupiravir is with considering?
Very possible. For instance, if he ended up sitting next to an infected family for an entire game. But, unless you’ve been regularly testing DD17 (at least twice a week), it’s also possible she was asymptomatic and passed it along (and she could already be negative by now in that scenario). It’s often hard to say with certainty with multiple exposure points.
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I was wondering the same thing about my daughter. We don’t test her so it could be. That would be best scenario because then she’d be in the clear now and would also mean the kn95s held up.
We will never know.
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Good notes on the masks. The kn95 fits my hubby well. But my daughter never has a good nose fit. I pinch my kn95 regularly to try to get it snug, but I do have a small head so it’s not ideal. I’m wearing n95 now that hubby is positive. I was surprised at the gap at the chin. It does feel warmer to wear it, though so I know it’s better than the kn95 now that I’ve tried it. At least as far as sealing goes.
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Thanks for the hopeful note on not catching it from your children. And the notes on the masks!
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Have you tried the 3M Aura 9205 or 3m Aura 9210? DW and I find those the most comfortable of the N95s.
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According to their Office of National
Statistics, the baseline number of weekly Covid cases in the UK over the last year is roughly 1 million, with the surges layered over that. Their total population is 67 million. So basically at any given time, at least 1 in 67 people there has Covid.
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Seems likely. I skipped a family party on Friday 10th, by last Friday 7 attendees that I know of had tested positive including my brother but luckily not my parents. I’m sure many others either tested positive that I don’t know about, or were positive but didn’t test.
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This was before Omicron though I believe so you probably have way less time.
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Something else - an N95 should be seal checked following the mfr’s instructions when you put it on.
Also some N95’s come in small sizes eg 3M VFlex 9105S
Technically a full fit test should be performed to ensure you can get a good seal with the particular model of N95 you’re using. 3M sells a kit.
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Just like flu
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You could also try a “duckbill” type mask. I’ve heard that they’re actually pretty comfortable and breathable and the fit may work better for you. Some examples:
(I haven’t tried duckbills myself, so I can’t say that these are the best ones or that these are good places to buy them. Just throwing out some examples that I’ve heard of. If you’re interested in looking into it more, I suggest poking around https://www.reddit.com/r/Masks4All/; lots of helpful threads over there.)
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Who had highly intelligent and possibly invincible super pigs invading America on their decade of the 2020’s bingo card???
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