My Summer Vacation: At-Home Test Kits

This morning DT sent a group text to The Roommates about free COVID-19 test kits; his school had sent the information out to staff. I checked it out.

I ordered a kit; thinking we were only allowed one per household. It was relatively easy. I texted back that I had ordered a kit & DT responded saying that he had also ordered a kit! I guess we will see how many actually arrive.

I looked up more information and found the kits being sent are the QuickVue At-Home OTC COVID-19 test kits by Quidel. It is apparently available at Walgreens for about $24 for a 2-test kit.

Then on the evening news they had a short piece about the test kits. And something they said made me wonder whether there was more going on about them. It turns out this is part of a study to see if surveillance testing can help keep COVID-19 in check; their aim is to test for asymptomatic spread. I wish both the website and the news bite had been more clear on why these test kits are being sent out. I will be giving my test kit to The Potential Most Favorite Roommate since he has the most contact with people outside of the house on a daily basis; he's a teller at a credit union in downtown Honolulu. DT has the next highest level of contact with people outside the house since he is a teacher. Here area a couple FAQs from the website.

I think I will take advantage of free testing when I am at testing events. They did offer to give any staff a test yesterday but I declined. Next time, I will take one so I can start creating a timeline of when I know I was negative for COVID-19. My biggest exposure source is at the testing events, followed by the outreach events. Work is safer since there are way less people (about a dozen) & all are vaccinated.

I made a lau ʻuala proothie this morning. But it was the last bag I could find on my shelf; I thought I made more than that. I will have to do a thorough search of the freezer; I had put them on different shelves when I first froze them.

We have many unusual things in our refrigerator. But I think the most unusual is the bag of white sugar. I am not sure why it is in the refrigerator since sugar, especially white sugar, does not need to be refrigerated. And I know it's not in there to keep the ants from getting in to it; they do not recognize white sugar as something edible. I will have to ask The Roommates why the white sugar is in the refrigerator.

I got a text from Bartells saying Kai's prescription was ready; he did not tell me he needed a refill. Before I finished paying for its delivery I called Kai to see what days he would be available; he did not answer so I put things on hold. I also sent him an IM. About half an hour later he called me to say he was at the Bartells picking up his prescription when I had called. It is the bowel prep stuff for his colonoscopy tomorrow. He has been having blood in his stool; he thinks it's an ulcer from work.

For lunch I used the vegan cheese to make a quesadilla. It was bland, but then again, the flavor was mozzarella which is a somewhat bland cheese. I will have to see if they have any other flavor of cheese. I did notice it did not melt as nicely as real cheese.

Just before dinner I heard a bunch of Common Waxbills giving their warning calls; they sounded like they were coming from the cat run! It turns out they were sitting on the top rail of the chain link fence on the section just outside the cat run. They were making noise at Keala who was at the corner of the west wall where she used to be able to get out of the cat run. When I opened the door & peaked out the waxbills left & Keala went running over to the east end of the cat run where the other hole was that she found the other day. Going after birds may be the reason she has been getting out of the cat run; she never goes out of the yard & we usually find her trying to get back in.

There are no birds here, they were on the section just past the end wall.

For dinner I had the Turkey Loaf with Mushroom Sauce & Broccoli Kale Salt Sauté. I almost forgot to take a photo of it but I managed to get one before I ate all of it!

This morning I could only find Keala & Luna; S'mores was hiding somewhere.

Keala.

Luna.

The Aix weather app forecast rain until mid-afternoon for Honolulu, followed by a few hours of drizzle then rain again in the evening. It was actually much sunnier than that. For Kapaʻau, Aix forecast a similar pattern just a bit wetter; the local paper was more optimistic & said there was only a 20% chance of rain. The Honomū weather station showed no precipitation in the morning and only 0.10 inches had accumulated by 6:35 p.m.; the local paper was more accurate. For Marysville, Aix forecast partly cloudy skies all day and that appeared to be accurate.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 6:11 a.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 6:11 a.m.

Marysville looking northerly at 6:12 a.m. HST.

Honomū looking northerly at 6:34 p.m.

Marysville looking southerly at 6:35 p.m. HST.

There are several storm systems that are sending swells our way. It looks like surfing will be better in a couple of days.

Laniakea (N) at 6:13 a.m.

Hilo Bay (E) at 6:14 a.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 6:15 a.m.

Waikoloa (W) at 6:17 a.m.

Laniakea (N) at 6:37 p.m.

Hilo Bay (E) at 6:38 p.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 6:39 p.m.

Waikoloa (W) at 6:40 p.m.

I don't understand why anti-vaxxers are so willing to take monocloncal antibodies but so resistant to vaccines. It makes no sense to me when they say they don't trust the vaccines because they were developed so quickly when the monoclonal antibodies were developed in the same time frame; there are also less clinical studies to support its efficacy & safety. It also makes no sense that they are opting for a treatment that requires a specialized clinic & personnel for intravenous administration, is only effective during a short window of a COVID-19 illness, takes a lot more time to administer, & is 10 times more expensive than the vaccine. Now their demands for monoclonal antibodies when they become infected with COVID-19 are putting a strain on the supply for those who are high risk and really need to have the treatment available to them.

Pfizer reported today that its vaccine works for children aged 5 through 11 years old. They will now be seeking FDA approval. The shots tested on these children was 1/3 the amount given to teenagers & young adults but still elicited as strong an immune response. Although children are at a lower risk of severe illness than the elderly, in the U.S. at least 5 million have tested positive and at least 460 have died. Being able to vaccinate them will go a long way to keeping them safer as they return to school.

Did you know that FEMA pays funeral costs for COVID-19 victims? I did not. And it's not only for people who died of COVID-19, though that is currently the most prominent use of these funds. FEMA will pay funeral costs for people who have died in an event declared a major disaster or emergency. For example, funds can be used to provide funeral services for people who died as a result of Hurricane Ida or its remnants.

There were 431 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 75,911. There were no new deaths reported so the number of fatalities remains at 714, which is about 1 in 2000 which is about 4 times less than the national average. Currently 7431 cases are considered active. As of yesterday 1,964,976 doses of vaccine have been administered providing 66.5% of the population with full vaccination and 75% with at least one dose.