The scapegoat of the mask shapes - Revisiting the bifold style

Interesting read about the poor old vertical bifold mask. Mainly nostalgia for me, probably won't ever be trying another one. We did rely on a particular vertical fold mask at one point, but I had to insert a much thicker wire into the nose wire compartment, mold that into shape on a wooden nose template, and then tape over the nose bridge with surgical tape. Wow the bad old days, so many hopeful purchases and failed fit tests.

Reminded also, funny (peculiar and ha ha) how 3M Aura was the golden child of 2021/2022. Dare I even type my opinion of that mask? It was better than bad, but it wasn't good. There was the Aura that existed in the Plato's Cave of social media, and then there was the Aura that we battled in real life. Insufficient adulation for 3M! Shun the Non-Believer! For me another example of starling murmuration. Oh I thought the nose bridge foam padding was pretty good, is that enough for redemption?

(Edit: because Aura was the thought terminating cliche. "Have you tried an Aura?" Yes I had, and I still had to mod other masks for adult faces that were swimming in an Aura.)

I'm still bitter that with all the border closures, quarantine hotels, quarantine police, movement restrictions, testing stations, etc. etc. we never had public R&D effort into non-industrial respirator designs that would suit daily life and would fit the entire community. I was trying to fit small faces, AFAB faces, "ethnic" faces. 😅 Oh dear.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Masks4All/comments/1s2igid/the_scapegoat_of_the_mask_shapes_revisiting_the/

#StillMasking

Masks, Misinformation, and Making Do
Appalachian Health-Care Workers
and the COVID-19 Pandemic

This volume comprises the COVID-19 pandemic experiences of Appalachian health-care workers, including frontline providers, administrators, and educators. The combined narrative reveals how governmental and corporate policies exacerbated the region’s injustices, stymied response efforts, and increased the death toll.

Despite the Appalachian focus, I think anybody paying attention would recognise many of the experiences, written early in this pandemic, when everything was still fresh, and the cloak of denial had yet to descend.

I really appreciated reading this mixture of detailed personal history and academic essay.

The book is freely available as a PDF:
https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/93396

#COVIDIsNotOver #PandemicHistory #Bookstodon #COVID19 #StillMasking #PlagueBook

Christ it was another make-up session with first-love/-obsession/-narcissistic-frenemy D'Arcy this time. We’d gone to an old-school fancy restaurant, i.e. French in a dark oak-paneled room. We talked so much upon being seated that when the server first came over we hadn’t even picked up our menus. I’d immediately apologized for “how I’d been back in high school,” but she shushed me and started talking naturally to me like Simona Joyce, the popular girl from senior year who I became friends with who decades later told me via facebook that she had actually been hard-crushing on me. At some point I realized with the drain of lucidity that I was dreaming, and I thought to myself, “If I could transfer my #StillMasking cautiousness in realtime to dreamtime, I wouldn’t be here,” to which <poof!> I woke up.

#Dream

Crossing the street today, a guy walking past me said, loudly - 'You don't need a mask!'

How would he know?

#StillMasking

The elder who hrmph’d upon first entering the laundromat and catching sight of someone #StillMasking came back in and has been coughing while rubbing off scratch-tickets for the last twenty-five minutes.

#Misanthropy

Do y'all have recommendations for N95-equivalent masks for small children? My kid can't wear one yet, I see sources saying it's a suffocation hazard until 2 years old, but I want to test some masks with relatives' kids.

3 masks I've ordered but can't vouch for yet:

* Zimi - https://zimiair.com/product/zm95s-white-particulate-protective-mask-children-xss-size/
* Trident - https://hlpmedical.net/en-us/products/trident%C2%AE-surgical-p2-respirator-level-3-hospital-grade-face-masks-individually-packaged-box-20
* Blue Industry - https://behealthyusa.net/products/blue-2d-color-mask-white-x-small-kids-size?_pos=1&_sid=fa1ca193c&_ss=r&variant=40977968529572

#CovidIsNotOver #StillMasking #N95 #ChildrensHealth

F.D Signifier and guest, Lola Germs, make it clear that #COVID isn’t over and that our efforts are needed to help protect vulnerable members of our community. Not just through masking but through advocacy and pressuring our local institutions. https://youtu.be/v1nS_-ra8xE

#LongCovid #StillMasking

Any #StillMasking #Covid #CovidIsNotOver .au folks have experience with Ausair Airflex masks? On the positive side, they're claiming kn95 certification, on the down side, they're on half price sale, which is worrying insofar as it suggests they might have wound down production, and maybe the filters will cease availability.

Need something a bit more convenient / quick doffable for outdoors / crowds than my 3M Auras.

Area wastewater Sars-CoV-2 PPMoV reading has dropped from a 'very-high' two-month post-holiday surge to land at what's the 'mere' year-round *new-normal / as-good-as-it's-gonna-get [😒/🤷]* '[just] high' (or close enough) of 160.1—I'm dropping from N95 to KN95, baby!

#StillMasking