February - What's Not to Love?

It's the first of February, and we are at the threshold of going into the third year of Covid-19. The omicron variant has had at least two mutations of its own, and while they appear to be less deadly they are also seemingly easier to transmit. Hospitals are again near capacity, and the beds are filled with mostly unvaccinated people. The vaccines and boosters do not protect as well against the omicron variant, but vaccinated people are less likely to get as sick and/or hospitalized as unvaccinated people. There is a growing sense that we are all going to get covid at some point. When this pandemic is looked back on in the future, historians may well be examining who DIDN'T get covid - and why?

free Covid-19 test kits

The U.S. government is offering two covid test kits free of charge to each household. We ordered ours through the government-provided link, and they arrived in a couple of weeks via the postal service. I had previously ordered some from Amazon just to have on hand, so we are set with tests for the moment. Too bad I can't get reimbursed for those as they are costly at $19 per box.

Health experts are now saying that the medical paper masks that most people wear, as well as cloth masks, are not sufficient in protecting you against the spread of omicron. They recommend wearing an N95 mask (normally only used in hospital settings) instead. Those were in really short supply earlier in the pandemic, and we were all asked to save those for health care professionals. Somehow our government is now distributing 400 million N95 masks to citizens at no charge. Where did these come from? Who knows. It looks like you have to go to a pharmacy to get the masks, and each person can have three. 

I think it's important to note that these mask are not washable and aren't meant to be reusable, so I'm not sure how that's going to work. In the meantime, I'll keep wearing my washable cloth mask - the one I made with a pocket to insert a filter. It's fitted, has a nose piece, and gives me four layers of protection, so I think I'm good as long as I continue to socially distance and stay away from crowded venues.

layered face mask