Where are our Meh Masks?

@callow Good for you! We’re doing some this weekend also. Local craft stores are out of elastic bands and rope (wonder why?), so we’re salvaging from old aprons, swimsuits and sweatpants!

@stolicat Today the Governor of PA recommended that all Pennsylvanians wear a mask any time they leave their homes for life-sustaining reasons. Finally!
I have a source for elastic but only in bulk (288 yards for 1/4")
If you’re making them for people who will be wearing them for long stretches, I hear they like ties because the elastic irritates the ears after a while.

@callow @stolicat Most comfortable type for me are the ones that have elastic that goes behind the head, not over the ears. The N95’s are made this way while the surgical masks typically hook on the ears. Ties are a pain to use all the time. I have a friend sewing buttons on to headbands for women so they can hook the elastic to the button instead of their ears.

@callow @stolicat My local hospital’s official pattern suggests 1/4 - 1/2 in grossgrain ribbon in place of elastics for tying behind the head, if that’s any help.

@awilkey @stolicat @cinoclav The ties are about 1/4" made of cotton fabric. Most I am making with elastic around the ears for friends and family to use for a short time like shopping trips or doctor visits.
I do appreciate your input!
Elastic around the head does sound much easier and more comfortable. Maybe I should just invest in that huge spool of elastic.

@callow @cinoclav @stolicat As not a medical professional, but someone who has spent too many hours in a wet lab due to education, it sounds weird but elastic isn’t the best over long term use. Elastic relies on constant positive pressure, which absolutely wrecks the ears over longer term. Given the choice I much prefer being able to set my own tension, vs overly tight elastics.

@awilkey 1 - The elastic shouldn’t be uncomfortably tight to begin with. 2 - They’re generally not meant to wear for such long periods of time that they should hurt. But I get your point. It’s all a matter of personal preference, though I do know all my coworkers complain about the masks with ties.

@cinoclav So that’s kind of the inherent problem. Masks sized properly tend to be more comfortable with elastics, but the consistency of elastics and mask sizing isn’t the best with crowd-sourced masks, leading to ties being the lesser-evil.

@callow @stolicat The article I read also pointed out that you can’t use bleach with elastic. So it’s fine for disposable but ties can be cleaned.

@callow @sammydog01 @awilkey @cinoclav Loving this master class in ways to fasten masks, especially the user input - some of the testing we’ve done has been with an elasticized cord, which has a stretchable cotton sheath, like a stretchy shoelace about 3/16" wide. Seems to work comfortably both for behind the ear loops and for tying in the rear, and you can set it so it holds snug but not too tight. It was the drawstring from an old pair of sweatpants, so not sure where to find more of it.

@awilkey @cinoclav @sammydog01 @stolicat I keep changing the design. My layers now are cotton fabric, landscape fabric inside and cotton lining back. I was making a pocket but closed them because the pros wear their disposable mask under it and the rest of us are clueless what to put inside.

@callow It took me an hour to make one. I’m seriously impressed. I ordered apples at the farmers market for pick-up so I’m testing mine out this morning.

@callow @cinoclav @sammydog01 @stolicat “Fun” Fact! Higher cotton-poly (40+% poly) blend might be a better improvised filter material for smaller particulate (there’s still a lack of research to say for certain.) A different study backs that up, but ends up recommending 100% t-shirt material as being slightly more comfortable and easier to make fit. Haven’t seen any good research on improvised filter material, but have seen both bedbug mattress covers and interfacing fabric suggested, the landscape fabric is new to me.

@sammydog01 I didn’t make all of them yesterday nor did I work on them all day. I also sew for a living so it’s easier for me. I’m more impressed with you making them and appreciate your hard work to protect me!

@awilkey @callow @cinoclav @sammydog01 @stolicat

NEWS FLASH…There was an arrest made in the bizarre series of sweatpant string robberies. Police said the thief had good intentions, but a robbery is a robbery. No word yet if charges will be filed…

@awilkey @callow @cinoclav @sammydog01 @therealjrn Robbery Suspect with Evidence:

@LaVikinga Thanks for adding that - all the more reason for using masks of face coverings.

@RiotDemon Will they let you wear a mask to work? Some customers might get the hint then.

@RiotDemon Our grocery store put up plastic shields in front of cashiers. That was smart.

@RiotDemon @sammydog01 So did ours and also at one pharmacy.

@Kidsandliz @sammydog01 I can wear a mask to work, but that might help the customers feel safe. Doesn’t really help me to feel safe when they aren’t wearing one and they are touching all the displays. People are ignorant. One guy was pissed off because some of our installers are not working right now.

We have shields up for our cashiers. I work on the sales floor. The amount of customers I am dealing with is insane.

This is the angriest I’ve been at work in a long time. I’m mentally exhausted.

@RiotDemon I went to Walmart a few days ago to get a lot of baking soda to deodorize a rug. It was full of people. I’m not going back. I would have ordered it for pick-up but it wasn’t allowed. Which I don’t understand since they had at least 100 pounds on the shelf.

I would have thought stores would restock when they’re closed, especially since most have limited their hours, and keep employees off the floor. They can find their own damn hammers or whatever, right?

@sammydog01 I wish it was that way. Where I work, customers are fucking useless.

Think about it, people that are not handy are deciding to pick up home remodeling projects. They come to us for guidance.

Here are some things I’ve personally helped people with in the last two days:

Countertop cleaner.

All the piping to plumb a sprinkler system feed from a canal.

A magnetic latch for a cabinet.

Paint.

A blind.

Vanities.

Backsplash tile.

Among many other things.

@RiotDemon @sammydog01 Maybe a handy member of the staff can fashion a face shield out of the supplies there like this old guy did?

Translation: That guy’s kung fu is strong!

https://www.the-sun.com/lifestyle/travel/326100/desperate-passengers-are-wearing-plastic-bottles-and-motorbike-helmet-to-protect-themselves-against-coronavirus/

KuoH

@kuoh we had someone wearing a dog cone, mask, and gloves in the store.

PRANKS! CRANKS! SHANKS! wait…

@RiotDemon I get asking for help if there’s water pouring out of your toilet but those people are jerks. They should have a sign on the door directing them to youtube.

@sammydog01 until we go to curbside pick up only it’s going to keep happening. Somebody died at another store and they went to curbside pickup only but they are the only ones.

We have it as an option.

@RiotDemon The walk out at Whole Foods was over lack of protection/employee safety. Anyone in your position needs protected as you have no choice about this. Stores need to make an effort to do so for more than the cashiers.

@jst1ofknd That’s how the “news” business makes money. Both-siderism is not journalism.

@mike808

And it has to be very pervasive to get to me. I don’t pay any attention to the news!

@jst1ofknd Don’t blink… Yes, this is how it looks to me too. Back in February I bought a pack of disposable masks, as well as two N95 masks, because watching BBC World News on PBS alarmed me. Reading Der Spiegel and other foreign media (in English) has been useful and oddly calming.

@jst1ofknd I was wondering about that, too. But the situation really has changed.
Initially, they didn’t tell people to wear masks because the rate of infection was quite low and masks aren’t great for protecting yourself from getting the virus. They just give a false sense of security.

Now that infection rates are much higher, a larger proportion of the populace is likely carrying it and potentially spreading it. Masks are pretty good at keeping an infected person from spreading it.

@jst1ofknd @Limewater This. They’re recommending masks for a different purpose now. Also to protect yourself you need a really good mask. To protect others you can make one out of an old sheet and leave the good ones for people that need them.

PRANKS! CRANKS! SHANKS! wait…

@mediocrebot Hey bot! Did you know if you behind the hospitals to the trash there are HUNDREDS of masks? All the good ones are in the red bags tho.

@therealjrn If you were lucky enough to score a few cans of Lysol you’re good to go even with the red bagged ones!

@sammydog01 @therealjrn I know someone on the forum who is really good at dumpster stealing diving at charities.

@Barney And I know someone on this forum who is really good at trolling. That thrift store threw out that stuff. It’s a for profit as well.

@Kidsandliz It’s not trolling if it’s the truth and everything I’ve said has been the truth no matter what you make up to soothe your guilty conscience.

BTW, stealing from a NPO donation dumpster and then re-selling the goods at your garage sale, is a crime.

@Barney Nope it isn’t unless illegal unless there is a local ordinance against it, which this area does not have. The Supreme Court ruled in 1988 that dumpster diving is legal except in 4 circumstances (at a recycling center, behind a locked fence/wall, if the dumpster is up against the building, or it is taken out of a locked container. Anything left out is free game).

So it is not theft since the stuff is in an open dumpster and or in bags/piles dumped on the ground. In those circumstances you are allowed to do what you want with it, and I haven’t had a garage sale. Nowhere to have one. 99% of what I pull from the dumpster goes to a charity that gives, rather than sells things to people in need, dress for success or the men’s equivalent. The medical stuff like bedside toilets and adult diapers (unopened ones) I take to a hospice. A few things I give to my kid or grandkids, there are a couple of families or individuals who just got out of a homeless shelter I give things to and quilts, sheets, towels, pillow cases, pillows (that those families don’t want) I give to one of the no kill animal shelters I volunteer at. I have sold a couple of things and have kept a couple of things for myself.

Your nastiness level to me is uncalled for. No one dumped on you when you spent several years talking, a lot, about your mom, your struggles with that/your/her situation or after she died. The better part of being a decent human being is not being nasty to folks. That, apparently, is not a lesson you learned in life. You want understanding and sympathy when horrible things happen in your life, but don’t extend that same consideration to select others.

You behave like a bully to me even in the face things that you would be expecting understanding if that stuff happened to you. None of us know everything that is going on in someone’s life and some people have more shit fall in theirs than others. Decent human beings don’t shit on others.

@Barney PS people put donations in donation bins labeled as such and not in dumpsters. Dumpsters contain trash that has been thrown out. I only go through the trash. Nice try though trolling me in a conversation I wasn’t in and then when called on it try to twist it into fake news.

@mike808 Isn’t that the truth. The lack of belief in science, except when it supports someone’s view point, is also very dangerous. On cancer lists I am on the rejection of chemo for “natural” and “alternative” so called “treatments” is common (and then the folks who join in and want more info about consuming apricot pits as a “treatment”, etc, which spreads the danger). Some believe the science about surgery but then would rather eat things that turn into arsenic (apricot pits for example) in their bodies rather than do chemo. According to that bunch, chemo is poison and it is all a big, bad pharma/MD money making conspiracy. On those lists/forums I spent a lot of time trying to debunk some of that stuff - generally with limited to no success even in the face of science studies that document that using science based treatments lead to better outcomes than using “other stuff”. Science is like gravity. It works all the time not just when you want it to. Sigh.

@Kidsandliz And we have the Orange Menace telling the FDA to “speed up” approval of some crackpot aquarium treatment like it was Trent Gowdy looking for fucking emails and Benghazi or as easy as getting nine women in a room to make a baby in a month. Sorry, I won’t apologize - Hair Twittler is a reckless sociopath.

And to all the Anti-Vaxx crowd - this is your real-life demonstration of what a world without those vaccines you’re bitching/shrieking about looks like.

And where did all of the middle-aged suburban wanna-be influencers go who were peddling “healing crystals” on their Youtube channels, podcasts, and blogs?

All those blithering idiots can just come to the front of the express line for their Darwin Award, as far as I’m concerned.

The Nasty Woman got it right: Deplorables.

@mike808 I agree so much. Was it the Turtle who also called Pelosi a nasty woman, when he shut her up?

@mike808 I am sure the anti-vax crowd is now hoarding toilet paper and face masks.

@sammydog01 I have some Animaniacs fabric I’ve been hoarding since the '90’s. I don’t think this is the project, but maybe?

@mossygreen @sammydog01 should we ask @narfcake?

@mossygreen @RiotDemon @sammydog01 If they’re smaller pieces, go for it. Large pieces, nah, don’t waste it.

I work in construction, so I have legitimate N95 masks to wear, but I’ll just be lopping on an extra shirt for cover here. I have a number of shirt.woot and TeeTurtle kids women’s shirts (that haven’t been cut into tote bags yet) because they were 99 cents or less from thrift stores. Their smaller size is perfect.

@narfcake @RiotDemon @sammydog01 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers it is!

@remo28 Somewhere or other I read/heard that the bags for vacuum cleaners are half way decent to use with the ones meant to really cut down on dust giving better protection.

@Kidsandliz @remo28 layers of the slip-in HEPA filters for vacs are being used also, but you need to be sure you’re allowing enough air flow for comfortable breathing.

@remo28 @stolicat Yeah air flow might be an issue. Didn’t think of that, but logically it would likely be harder to breath through them.

@Kidsandliz @remo28 Also an issue with the coveted N95 masks. We use them at work (or did - we donated all ours to the County Health Department) and as they are classified as a respirator and have restricted airflow, our workers had to have a doctor’s certification that they had no breathing problems.

Which is an issue I haven’t heard mentioned, but if you do have the symptom of shortness of breath and difficulty breathing, and you think you should be wearing a mask to prevent spread, the N95 might be the worst thing for you.

@sammydog01 How seasonal! Very nice!

@therealjrn JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE, BELLS…

I found some cows, pigs, and cars from the movie Cars. I have a lot of fabric.

SEE, HOARDING IS A GOOD THING!

@sammydog01 BATMAN SMELLS, WE’RE ALL STUCK AT HOME…

@sammydog01

I found some cows, pigs, and cars from the movie Cars. I have a lot of fabric.

TATER!

@therealjrn MATER! TOWMATER!

@sammydog01 oops lol

@sammydog01 I have a few hundred fat quarters that might work. Need to wash them first.

@sammydog01 It looks pretty good from here, Sammy!

@sammydog01 nice job! And very festive

@sammydog01 If you have a quilting presser foot, it will handle the multiple layers better.

@msklzannie I don’t have one. I’m pretty sure they don’t make my machine anymore either. Boo.

@sammydog01 If you know the model you may still be able to find a compatible presser foot.

@sammydog01 Ignore the fact that this guy makes a mask in less than 2 minutes and focus on the way he uses the straps as binding. It’s easier and less bulky. Measurements are about 9"w x 8"l and the ties are 1.5"w x 35"l total.

@msklzannie I did find a quilting presser foot with a 1/4 inch guide for my machine. Cool! I guess my machine is pretty standard. Thanks

@callow @sammydog01 so fast!!

This is the type of pattern I found but the ties were done differently.

I did see on one page that the reusable shopping bag material is good for an outer layer. Maybe those meh bags can come in handy after all.

@callow @RiotDemon @sammydog01 Now that would be cool - especially if you center the Irk. Hey meh can do that when if they sell them here. Even better they can can throw them into the irks along with a roll of toilet paper that says meh on each square.

@callow @RiotDemon @sammydog01 I’ve also seen where people use double-fold bias tape for the binding and ties.

@callow @sammydog01 that video is amazing. I’d be struggling over the mask for days and then it would fall apart when I tried to use it

@bmf

Well that doesn’t look very sanitary…

@bmf @jst1ofknd

@bmf @jst1ofknd @stolicat Holy Crap. Hopefully not for sale at an Amazon vendor or make it to the USA in any other way.

@bmf @jst1ofknd @Kidsandliz @stolicat makes me very happy I purchased a BUNCH of bandannas last month that could be crafted into washable/reusable masks.

@bmf luckily, most actual factories that make these use an automatic machine.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DxR_6HHEAF4U&ved=2ahUKEwiwv9nsh9DoAhVIXq0KHRbdDngQwqsBMAF6BAgFEAQ&usg=AOvVaw3gBC2mwp4B6Woh86jqGpI7

@sammydog01 I’m loving the bandanas.

@RiotDemon @sammydog01 I was doing the bandana this week, when I went somewhere I felt like I was there to rob the payroll …

I’m assuming banks are asking them to be removed - the local bank requires I take my hat off so the security cameras can get a good look at me.

@RiotDemon @sammydog01 @stolicat If they’re doing it properly, your bank should have cameras at about eye level.

@stolicat My local banks have all had their lobbies closed for the last 2 weeks. It’s all drive thru, maybe a walk-up window (where the teller is behind glass). Weird that some places still have bank lobbies open.

@remo28 Well, I hadn’t thought of that, having not had a reason to go into the bank since the closures - they had sent some emails about operational changes that I didn’t read very carefully but it makes sense they would close the bank lobbies. Duh on me.

PS and for those who don’t sew apparently a ton are being made and sold on Etsy (and selling out so at least those folks are making money, hopefully not price gouging).

This article talks about testing shop rags for how much they filtered.

https://zippy.digital/using-blue-shop-towels-in-homemade-face-masks-can-filter-particles-2x-to-3x-better-than-cotton-three-clothing-designers-discover-after-testing-dozens-of-fabrics/

Apparently cotton is 20-60% of 0.3mm particles and 2 kinds of sort of paper shop rags did much better than that. Seems to me making a cotton mask with a pocket and then cutting those to fit in the pocket to make the filtering better might be a good idea.

PRANKS! CRANKS! SHANKS! wait…

Interesting peer reviewed article about how to increase the filtration efficiency of a less than ideal mask.

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep39956

@Kidsandliz somewhere in all that there was a video of a guy that made the easy mask out of the shop towels. Some dude in the comments said two layers of the shop towels was something like 73% effective. Regular cotton masks was around 52%. I have a mask pattern I printed out while I was at work that has a pocket for filters.

I’m not sure if I have any shop towels, but that seems like it would be a better solution versus nothing.

You can’t April Fool me!

@RiotDemon Yes the shop towels were pretty good and two brands of a specific “model” were better than the third they tested. I went to home depot and bought a small box of one of the good ones. Only 3 boxes left in town of either kind - I guess they are being bought out too.

Whisper me your address. I can send you some. I was going to just buy a mask with a pocket, cut one to fit and it in (Etsy has a bunch of cotton ones. I figure it will be cheaper that way than to buy fabric, elastic, etc.). I had, early last month, given all my left over chemo masks to a friend with stomach cancer who is undergoing chemo. I don’t feel right asking for one back. Had I thought about it I would have saved one or two out.

Make sure you put in a nose metal thing though to close it around your nose. Somewhere or other someone suggested using a pipe cleaner if you didn’t have a small bendable piece of metal to glue to it. Actually since microwaving 2 minutes kills all viruses (according to that same facebook video), making a sleeve to put in and then take out the nose “piece” would make sense.

Actually the part of that facebook video (below) makes the case for having at least 2 masks as cleaning with water and left to dry for 20 hours and the viruses are gone. Using soap reduced the effectiveness of it.

@RiotDemon PS the other point was making sure it went under your chin too.

@Kidsandliz thanks for the offer. If I don’t have any shop towels in my garage I know where we have some at work.

The page I was on recommended boiling for ten minutes.

@RiotDemon The two that tested well were Zep blue industrial towels (what I could find) and Toolbox blue shop towel roll (I am presuming the ones cut into separate towels are likely the same as the roll - roll was $2 the Zep ones for 75 was $6 which is likely why the Toolbox ones are sold out). Hopefully you can find one or the other. The difference between those two and the next one down in filtration was pretty dramatic (about 20 percentage points or something close to that).

@remo28 If Walmart is providing good ones she needs to figure out how to live with “hot”. They are now thinking (studied with medical personnel) that the more exposure you have the more likely you are not only to test positive but be sicker when you do get it.

@Kidsandliz it’s just the paper type masks, not the N95 ones. I told her should could then silently curse customers and they wouldn’t know because of the mask. She seemed interested. She also has a few hours in the morning with no customers, but yes she needs to wear something.

@remo28 Make her one with a pocket (or buy one from Etsy - most of them are running $8-12). Then get either Zep blue industrial towels (what I could find) or a Toolbox blue shop towel roll (I am presuming the ones cut into separate towels are likely the same as the roll) and cut an insert for the pocket. Those two shop towels tested much better than another brand tested or cotton or regular paper towels to block the virus. They blocked something like 80% (can’t remember the exact number off the top of my head - I think it was the video I posted and maybe one of the articles I posted had a list). A surgical mask and the N95 both did better than that however the big surprise was how well . The paper masks they are giving out might be the surgical ones.

@jst1ofknd Like your t-shirt verbiage.

@Kidsandliz

It’s one of my favorite shirts. I enjoy going to mediocritee.com to see what shirts are there every week.

@RiotDemon

@RiotDemon And cut to fit a shop towel to put in there as a filter and it would be even better.

@corrado how about doing it for everyone, not just VMPs?

@corrado
Sorry, @stolicat. Bet you wished you kept your VMP now huh…say…uh…after this is over, can I have your stuff?

@corrado @therealjrn I never had a VMP, I’m one of those lowly recent immigrants. I’d think most of the Meh customer base never had one,either. Not all of us came over on the Mayflower.

@blaineg Make sure you write a note politely asking them for the money, in case they can’t hear you clearly through the PPE.

KuoH

@kuoh A friend pointed out that I really need a broad-brimmed hat.

@blaineg @kuoh Add some goggles with that hat and you will really look “swell”. But officer I was only trying to protect myself against the virus. The bank teller took it the wrong way.

@blaineg Hey, from the eyes up, we could be brothers! (And no, I won’t be your fall guy for the bank job. )

@blaineg @Kidsandliz No need to worry, when the nice officer asks you to step out of the vehicle, tell him I’m just following the law like the governor and President told me to.

KuoH

@macromeh Come on Sundance, where’s your sense of adventure?

@stolicat I’m using the fabric I hoarded, I mean saved for a decade or two just in case we had a pandemic.

@Kidsandliz Any testing/rumors on using all those unused Instant Pots everyone has by now to sterilize them, like a home autoclave?

Not sure if the Coronavirus soup left in the bottom leaves a tang in the silicone seals, like the ghosts of chilis past in your yoghurt.

@mike808 No idea. Haven’t tried to find engineering or medical research information about that. What I have read (research based) on some surfaces the virus lasts longer than others which I think everyone knows by now.

I did see, in the article about making sure masks were virus free that microwaving cotton masks (without any metal in them obviously) for 3 min kills viruses provided the microwave is at least 700 watts. The N95 masks were not tested in that as the research was on homemade masks. I think I read somewhere that the melted polypropylene masks (which would include N95 masks) shouldn’t be subjected to super high heat due to potential damage to the fibers which would then affect filtration efficiency. BUT that is from memory. I’d have to double check.

As boiling cotton masks, they don’t survive past about 150 degrees (that I can find covid-19 hasn’t been tested, but other similar RNA viruses, like SARS has been tested. A quick look and it appears 139 to 148 degrees have been found to work. So taking into account the likely margin of error on cooking thermometers, go for 150 or 160.The temperature breaks down their lipid outer layer and so they die due to that. Cotton masks you can probably boil if you don’t feel like monitoring temperature (although some may shrink significantly and so you my “wreck” it that way), but clearly a lower temp would do it (so use your meat or candy thermometer to watch the temperature).

The polypropylene mask fibers can be damaged by temperatures over 180 degrees (at least according to a study on the properties of 100 melted polypropylene “fabric”, when made into a hard plastic it survives higher temps better). It also shouldn’t be dried in the sun as UV rays can damage it.

Also with respect to your Insta Pot after you created coronavirus soup - since soap dissolves the fat outer layer of the virus which then causes the virus to die (which is why soap and water works so well on hands as long as you do it long enough and cover all hand surfaces) I’d suspect a good “hand washing” job on insta pots would do the same thing. Of course you could always use some of the other items that kill the virus to clean them and seal as well (well presuming you can find any or have any).

Disclosure - I was reading science based stuff but haven’t done a complete review of the literature so may have missed something important.

@Kidsandliz I would think that because the Instant Pot works by pressurized steam, it is well over the 180°F temps that degrade the mask fibers.

I’ve read that for cloth masks, removing the filter if you can (many DIY are sewed in) and washing in warm water with light soap and low temperature drying (e.g. delicates) does the trick without degrading the fabrics.

People are using the filter material from home furnace filters (purple/1500/anti-allergen kind, not the see-through kind) from what I see on Etsy and eBay, cutting and selling for masks.

The temperatures are about right for a nice sous vide sauna, however. That looks to me as an easy, DIY, at home, self-managed method, based on what you’ve noted with the 150°F temperature being a sweet spot between killing the virus faster than leaving it to degrade at room temperature and too hot and degrading the filter material.

And you can do sous vide outside or in the garage with an old chest cooler or bucket for bonus points.

@Kidsandliz @mike808 so is there any info on ozone killing the virus? I have one of those So Clean machines and am wondering if dropping a mask in would disinfect it…

PRANKS! CRANKS! SHANKS! wait…

@mike808 That is probably helpful for people to know who are reading this thread.

Last night filling up my car with gas, wearing my just came in today new 100% melted 2 layer polypropylene mask (what I finally decided to buy off of Etsy after reading up on masks - I had given all my left over chemo masks to someone under going chemo right now - oops should have thought to save one out for me) the girl behind the counter was sick, likely with covid-19. Her dad had been staying at her house during the lockdown here and was now in ICU with covid-19. She was told if she didn’t come to work she’d be fired.

She came to work with a temp of 102, coughing, her employer wasn’t supplying masks and she wasn’t wearing one. But she kept putting hand sanitizer on her hands. Well OK but it was probably too late for that. Sigh. Employers like that should be put in a locked room for 24 hours or so, with no mask, that was being misted with covid-19. Front line workers need just as much protection as folks in the medical profession.

And as customers we need protection from employees too since that is how these home made masks mostly protect. In fact if we don’t have a mask on (our state mandated it) then stores should be allowed to ban us from entry. In fact they could sell masks at the door.

@mediocrebot Well cool the dinosaur showed up again. Wonder what word triggered it.

@mike808 @tinamarie1974 I haven’t looked about ozone. Will do later when I have time.

@Kidsandliz @tinamarie1974

She was told if she didn’t come to work she’d be fired. She came to work with a temp of 102, coughing, her employer wasn’t supplying masks and she wasn’t wearing one.

Employers that do that should be charged and convicted with negligent homicide if any employees or customers die from COVID-19. Or charge the board and CEO and COO for mass murder and war crimes if they did it intentionally.

If corporations are people too, then they can get the death penalty too. As in government siezure of all assets, delist the stock, and all shareholders and non-real persons such as debtors (that aided and abetted such criminal behavior by extending credit to enable their criminal mass murder) can suck it.

If there is no penalty, the corporate misconduct in the name of shareholder profits will only continue. Just as the Orange Menace has learned - if there are no consequences, there are no limits to abuse of power.

@Kidsandliz @mike808 @tinamarie1974 My company (Casey’s) provided plexiglass sneeze guards to every store. To clock in, we now have to affirm that we are feeling well and took our temperature immediately prior to coming to work and that it wasn’t over 100. They absolutely do NOT want us coming in if sick in any way.

Eta: They are planning to provide masks that we can use but those are backordered. We can wear our own homemade ones.

@mike808 The other problem will be replacing the elastic as any store around here is out of any elastic.

I think the research that indicated that 5 hours sitting out hanging after something is bone dry is the easiest way to deal with the no virus when we are done cleaning it (or the conclusion that air drying 20 hours from wet would be enough).

I just plan to rinse and air dry mine if need be. No soap since mine is made of melted polypropylene. No really hot water either as I don’t want to accidentally get it too hot and damage the fiber.

@Kidsandliz Get face coverings that have ties instead of elastic. Trying not to trigger M-bot.

I wouldn’t be too hopeful about the ozone. Ionizing only works for electrostatic particles, and I doubt Coronaviruses are among them.

Ionic surfactants, however, are why soap and water work.

@mike808 The one I bought has ties. Of course I now end up tying strands of hair in those ties. I guess accidentally doing that will keep the ties from obeying gravity.