It's back to school I go....to work

[JoyfulNoise]

I heard that you shouldn't wash the masks, because it degrades their effectiveness; instead, you should put them aside for 24 hours, and all virus particles should be dead.

After wearing a mask for a few hours, look at the inside of it, it’s a disgusting mess of sweat, snot, and leftover lunch. The bacterial growth would be far worse that any virus.

Cloth masks are not about filtration or trying to stop YOU from breathing in viral particles. It’s about reducing the effects of viral shedding by the wearer when they cough, sneeze or even speak words with “p”, “th” or “h” sounds. Every person, conscious of it or not, spews and sprays out spit and respiratory particles every time one opens their mouth. Face coverings are about keeping YOU from infecting EVERYONE ELSE.

In that case, washing a mask does not degrade its effectiveness at all. Plus, these masks are doubled up fabric. Unless there’s a huge hole in it, they will work just fine for reducing the ejection of respiratory particles from the wearer.

 

[Newdude]

After wearing a mask for a few hours, look at the inside of it, it’s a disgusting mess of sweat, snot, and leftover lunch. The bacterial growth would be far worse that any virus.

Anybody have to sneeze in a mask yet ? Feels like you ‘had an accident’ and you have to finish shopping all warm and gooey. Do. Not. Recommend.

 

[mknauss]

all warm and gooey.

 

[Newdude]

Yes. Exactly like that. But in the mask. And you have 9 aisles to go still.

 

[JJ_Tex]

The scientific term for that is a snooze. It is closely related to a shart.

 

[Jeff J.]

After wearing a mask for a few hours, look at the inside of it, it’s a disgusting mess of sweat, snot, and leftover lunch. The bacterial growth would be far worse that any virus.

Cloth masks are not about filtration or trying to stop YOU from breathing in viral particles. It’s about reducing the effects of viral shedding by the wearer when they cough, sneeze or even speak words with “p”, “th” or “h” sounds. Every person, conscious of it or not, spews and sprays out spit and respiratory particles every time one opens their mouth. Face coverings are about keeping YOU from infecting EVERYONE ELSE.

In that case, washing a mask does not degrade its effectiveness at all. Plus, these masks are doubled up fabric. Unless there’s a huge hole in it, they will work just fine for reducing the ejection of respiratory particles from the wearer.

I know all that, although I also suspect it does offer some protection for the wearer. I had heard a doctor on the radio say that tests showed a few percent degradation in the mask's ability to filter aerosol particles with each wash. She recommended putting it aside for 24 hours. She didn't address the other issues. I don't know if that is the majority opinion. I actually only wear a mask when in an office or store, so it doesn't get very funky. I was wearing a cloth one, but didn't like it much, so I'm wearing the disposable type, although I don't like to dispose of them too often for ecological reasons.

 

[scdaren]

Things are a mess in California. We decided to pull our kids out altogether and homeschool them, which I never in a million years thought we would ever do. But here we are.

Our school district voted to open, then the state said no, not until we reach levels of Covid that are unlikely for quite some time. We had the option of zoom classes with what would be their normal teacher and school, or a separate distance learning option the district contracted with called Edgenuity. Our kids were in open revolt about having to do full day zoom schedules every day, and the distance learning system sounded not great. So we have a district that wants to open and not do online learning, a state that doesn't want us to open, and all the kids stuck in the middle. Plus we have high-risk people in our home for covid, and who knows when things will be fully safe again. So we decided to take control of the situation and just do it all ourselves, on our schedule, and in our own way. Feels very liberating, but a little scary, too. We are really hoping our kids can get back to their normal lives for next year.

Meanwhile, with all the fires in California, it's super nasty and smoky outside so we can't even use our pool. 2020 sucks.

 

[Newdude]

There aren’t enought upvotes to give for all that ^^^^^^^^ ‘+1’.

 

[scout123]

For parents of in-person school kids, feel free to leverage this sign to avoid you having to make emergency trips up to the school

View attachment 159780

YES! haha I had a kid this morning get out of the car and shut the door...no backpack, nothing. I think he was half asleep. His dad was on the ball, though, and jumped out of the car with the kid's backpack. Taking their chromebook home is something new we are doing this year in case of closure, so they have to remember to bring them in every day.

We are really hoping our kids can get back to their normal lives for next year.

I do too!

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Concierge Teacher is a HOT new field these. Take yourself and maybe 4 or 5 of your best friends with kids, pool your money, each family hosts “the kiddo pod” for a day and the teacher/coordinator makes probably 50% more on salary than they could earn at the district....and you get 4 days of sanity ....

 

[JJ_Tex]

 

[AlexCaro]

My nephew went to his 1st grade this year, and I think I was more excited than he