N95 Masks

Yesterday, while President Biden was announcing the opening of the website to order at-home COVID-19 antigen tests, he also said in a week the Federal government will also be sending out N95 masks to each household. Apparently the masks are coming from the Strategic National Stockpile.

On the news tonight, after talking about the upcoming Federal mask distribution, they had a story about a local mask-making company. I was going to order some N95 masks on-line but had not sorted through the CDC list yet. I think I will order from the Kona Mask Company & support a local business! They also carry surgical masks; all their masks are CDC approved, including the FLUTECT which is currently being reviewed for FDA approval.

All their employees are local.

Because they are made of medical grade materials they won't have different colors.

If you are wondering about the difference between the N95 & KN95 masks, here's a great article that compares masks. The article compares not only the N95s which are made in the US & the KN95 from China; it also examines the FFP2 (Europe), P2 (Australia), KMOEL (Korea), & DS (Japan). According to 3M, the masks listed meet the standards in their home country that are equivalent to the N95 standards. The most important thing is making sure the mask is not counterfeit; to check that out go to the CDC mask website. 

Obviously the Feds won't be able to send out a whole bunch of N95 masks to each house. So you might be wondering, is there a way to wash or disinfect an N95 mask? It turns out washing with soap reduces the effectiveness of N95 masks; an alcohol wash is even worse. So what does work? It turns out the best way to disinfect an N95 mask at home is to allow it to dry out for 48 hours; which means don't store it in a plastic bag. I have found plain brown paper lunch bags work well.

I was supposed to be volunteering with the Public Health Nurses at the Mayor Wright Housing doing outreach & education today. But when I got up I had an amazingly intense headache; drinking water didn't help, getting more sleep didn't help, eating didn't help. I had no aspirin or other pain reliever & I was in no condition to drive so I toughed it out. It got a little better later in the morning but when I went in to the family room the intense glare of the sun made it worse; I think it might have been eyestrain. I have had headaches caused by eyestrain before but never that intense; I will have to be more aware of that. It did finally subside but it was too late to go to the outreach & education event.

I had to walk through the family room to get to the kitchen to make my proothie; it was a dinosaur kale proothie this morning. The Lacinato Kale has a pebbly upper surface that some people think looks like dinosaur skin, hence the other name. It tasted better than using curly kale; I think I'll choose dinosaur kale if I have a choice. 

Which reminds me, last night I watched a Nova episode on Alaskan Dinosaurs. The new information found in Alaska has changed a lot of the previous assumptions about dinosaurs. Based on findings that dinosaurs lived in Alaska year round & raised young there, the paleontologists determined that the dinosaur species they found were warm-blooded, foraged in rotting wood for insects in the winter, & some of them were somewhat "hairy".  So much for "pebbly" skin. Click here for the full hour long Nova episode or check out the 10-minute long discussion video below.

I also watched one of the PBS episodes of Animals With Cameras. I watched the episode, The Ocean Through Animal's Eyes, where they attached small cameras to loggerhead turtles, sharks, elephant seal pups, & gannets in order to find out more about their daily habits that are not observable by scientists. Here is a short clip below. (Click on the title above to watch the whole episode.)

Here is the morning review of cats sleeping. Or not.

Keala.

Luna.

S'mores.

I spent a bunch of time organizing paperwork so there are no photos of that. I need to get together with The Roommates & find out who wants to be responsible for paying which of the monthly bills as well as arranging for service for the Terminix & Sears contracts.

For dinner I had another serving of soup that The Potential Most Favorite Roommate made a couple days ago along with some cauliflower rice.

There was a new Volcano Awareness Month short released today, it is on HVO's Ongoing Recovery From the 2018 Kīlauea Events. The observatory & visitor center were damaged & monitoring equipment was lost. The eruption appeared to have slowed down a little bit during the day. Mauna Kea is still snow-covered though it is melting.

At 7:41 a.m.

At 4:40 p.m.

At 7:41 a.m.

At 4:40 p.m.

At 7:42 a.m.

At 4:40 p.m.; I think the camera is out of focus.

The Aix weather app forecast partly cloudy skies for Honolulu throughout the day except for a short period of drizzle at mid-afternoon; the traffic showed partly cloudy skies. For Kapa'au, Aix forecast rain all day & in to the evening turning to drizzle after dark; Big Island Now forecast mostly sunny with isolated showers in the morning & partly cloudy with scattered showers in the afternoon with a 50% chance of rain. The Honomū weather station recorded no precipitation for the day. For Marysville, Aix forecast rain all day & well in to the evening; the traffic cam was not working so I was unable to compare the forecast to what was happening.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 7:36 a.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 7:36 a.m.

Marysville traffic cam not working today.

Waikīkī looking easterly at 7:39 a.m.

Waikīkī looking easterly at 4:39 p.m.

The surf along the north & west facing shorelines was just below high surf advisory levels today but is expected to increase tomorrow. 

Laniakea (N) at 7:37 a.m.

Hilo Bay (E) at 7:38 a.m.

Wailīkī (S) at 7:39 a.m.

Banyans (W) at 7:40 a.m.

Laniakea (N) at 4:39 p.m.

Hilo Bay (E) at 4:37 p.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 4:38 p.m.

Banyans (W) at 4:40 p.m.

There is a well-defined area of low pressure in the Eastern Pacific near the boundary for the Central Pacific; it has been given a 40% chance of forming a cyclone within the next 5 days. Cyclones at this time of the year are rare since the ocean surface is cooler.

Queens North Hawai'i Community Hospital will be the closest large hospital to me. It is expanding the hours that they will be providing vaccinations to the public. I won't have to worry about trying to get there though, shots are also being given at the kūpuna health clinic in North Kohala.

The Kona Community Hospital will be the next closest large hospital to me; they are reinstating their no visitor policy in light of the skyrocketing case numbers. Many hospitals & nursing homes had this policy in place at the start of the pandemic. The farthest large hospital from me will be the Hilo Community Hospital. FYI There is a 4-bed emergency room about 2 miles from me; their goal is to stabilize patients well enough so they can be transported by ambulance to Queens North or Kona Community if needed.

There were 5911 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 190,678. There were also 9 new deaths reported, increasing the death toll to 1135; currently there are 57,708 cases considered active. As of today there have been 2,666,022 doses of vaccine administered, providing 75.4% of the State population with full vaccination & 81.3% with at least one dose; 31.1% have received a 3rd dose. Currently 390 cases are hospitalized with 48 in the ICU & 27 on ventilators. The 7-day new case average for the State is 4418; the 7-day new case average for Oʻahu is 3079.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Sheryl & Maki-san!