#Respirators mask

[covid-safer-hotties]

CDC voice: "I know I said we'd do something about covid if it got very high again, but we have real tough jobs to do, like removing the recommendations that children with head lice or watery diarrhea be sent home to prevent further spread of their illness."

[duchessathena]

wish more was being done to go against these mask bans popping up around the country. this is a complete violation of personal freedom especially as COVID is still ripping through the entire United States killing and disabling people. this is all just an excuse to expand the already large surveillance state.

[gumjrop]

This year’s flu shot will be missing a strain of influenza it’s protected against for more than a decade.

That’s because there have been no confirmed flu cases caused by the Influenza B/Yamagata lineage since spring 2020. And the Food and Drug Administration decided this year that the strain now poses little to no threat to human health.

Scientists have concluded that widespread physical distancing and masking practiced during the early days of COVID-19 appear to have pushed B/Yamagata into oblivion.

This surprised many who study influenza, as it would be the first documented instance of a virus going extinct due to changes in human behavior, said Dr. Rebecca Wurtz, an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

“It is such an interesting and unique story,” Wurtz said, adding that if it were not for COVID, B/Yamagata would still be circulating.

One reason COVID mitigation efforts were so effective at eliminating B/Yamagata is there was already a fair amount of immunity in the population against this strain of flu, which was also circulating at a lower level, said Dr. Kawsar Talaat, an infectious disease physician at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In contrast, SARS-CoV-2 was a brand new virus that no one had encountered before; therefore, masking and isolation only slowed its transmission, but did not stop it.

The absence of B/Yamagata won’t change the experience of getting this year’s flu shot, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends to everyone over 6 months old. And unvaccinated people are no less likely to get the flu, as B/Victoria and two influenza A lineages are still circulating widely and making people sick. Talaat said the disappearance of B/Yamagata doesn’t appear to have lessened the overall burden of flu, noting that the level of illness that can be attributed to any strain varies from year to year.

The CDC estimates that between 12,000 and 51,000 people die every year from influenza.

However, the manufacturing process is simplified now that the vaccine is trivalent — designed to protect against three flu viruses — instead of quadrivalent, protecting against four. That change allows more doses to be produced, said Talaat.

Ultimately, the costs of continuing to include protection against B/Yamagata in the flu shot outweigh its benefits, said Talaat.

"If you include a strain for which you don't think anybody's going to get infected into a vaccine, there are some potential risks and no potential benefits," she said. "Even though the risks might be infinitesimal, the benefits are also infinitesimal."

Scientists and public health experts have discussed for the past couple years whether to pull B/Yamagata from the flu vaccine or wait for a possible reemergence, said Kevin R. McCarthy, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Vaccine Research. But McCarthy agrees that continuing to vaccinate people against B/Yamagata does not benefit public health.

Additionally, there is a slight chance of B/Yamagata accidentally infecting the workers who manufacture the flu vaccine. The viruses, grown in eggs, are inactivated before being put into the shots: You cannot get influenza from the flu shot. But worker exposure to live B/Yamagata might occur before it's rendered harmless.

That hypothetically could lead to a reintroduction of a virus that populations have waning immunity to because B/Yamagata is no longer making people sick. While that risk is very low, McCarthy said it doesn’t make sense to produce thousands of gallons of a likely extinct virus.

It is possible that B/Yamagata continues to exist in pockets of the world that have less comprehensive flu surveillance. However, scientists aren’t worried that it is hiding in animals because humans are the only host population for B lineage flu viruses.

Scientists determined that B/Yamagata disappeared in a relatively short period of time, and this in and of itself is a success, said McCarthy. That required collaboration and data sharing from people all over the world, including countries that the U.S. has more tenuous diplomatic relationships with, like China and Russia.

“I think the fact that we can do that shows that we can get some things right,” he said.

Sarah Boden is an independent health and science journalist based in Pittsburgh.

[feminist-space]

The CDC says to protect your lungs from ash and dust and other pollutant particulates in the air, you should wear long sleeved shirts.

[riderofthemist]

Mx.Papaya : bit.ly/FreeResistArt

Instagram: @ AgitateAndEducate

Twitter: @ Bufanator

[king-sappho]

How is it when the president of the US (who said Covid is over!) gets Covid and steps down from the race people still act like the pandemic is over? How is it that Olympians are sweepingly getting Covid and dropping out people still act like Covid is mild??

People who are on international stages, with incredible power or ability, get Covid and then are too sick to function. Why doesn’t this alarm anyone?

[prettygirlgerard]

northern safety has a sale on N95’s for 10 cents per mask! you can get 500 for only $50 😷🩷!!!

[dozydawn]

"Dancers of the Opera-Comique in Paris try on the respirators provided by the Service de la Defense.”

May 2nd, 1939.

[norhuu]

It’s the beginning of fire season, so I’m going to share this memory and some advice I learned the hard way.

In fall 2020 the wild fires on the west coast were so bad that you could barely see 15 feet at times. Where I lived the aqi hit 590 at one point. We could not evacuate and we had no insulation in our house.

The gas masks saved us. Me and my roommates taped our windows shut and wore respirators in the house for a week. I did this sketch of them while we were watching the muppet movie one night.

Most of you will have experience a fire or smoke storm at some point, this is not going away. Smoke inhalation can have permanent and long term effects.

Get a respirator mask, and get replacement filters for organic and biological material. They can be as cheep as $12, and even if you don’t think you’re at risk, it is not something you want to find out you need afterwards. If you can afford to, get extras. Someone you know might need it.

Also useful at protests, just saying…

[covid-safer-hotties]

[charlesherbertlightoller]

In light of the summer surge of COVID-19 rolling round, masking protocols getting scrapped left and right, other respiratory diseases on the rise and seasonal air pollution ramping up, here's some more things that high-performance respirator masks (N95 and the like) protect against:

Influenza (including bird flu!)

Common cold

Bacterial pneumonia

Tuberculosis

Measles

Fungal spores (including valley fever!)

Dust

Airborne allergens (pollen, pet dander, dust mites, etc)

Man-made air pollution (exhaust from cars and jets, industrial emissions, etc.)

Wildfire smoke

…and much more!

While COVID-19 is undoubtably serious and masking is the best way to prevent yourself from catching it, there's many more reasons why the air might be bad to breathe, and breathing bad air is a public health risk for everyone! Additionally, certain demographics experience higher levels of exposure to airborne contaminants than others, yet they often have the least access to accurate information, personal protective gear and medical resources.

It is imperative, for stemming the spread of COVID, mitigating the effects of other airborne hazards and showing solidarity with vulnerable individuals, that we normalize masking for a variety of reasons. Do you have a cold? Wear a mask. Do you have allergies? Wear a mask. Do you live or work in an area with heavy air pollution? Wear a mask. Is there a wildfire nearby? Wear a mask. Just want to avoid getting sick when you go to the doctor's office? Wear a mask. Whenever and wherever there might be bad air, masking protects you!

It may seem like nobody cares now, but I promise you; change is possible, change is inevitable, and YOU have the agency and ability to make change for yourself, your community and the world by setting an example and spreading the word. So take charge and clear the air!

(I do not use Blaze. Please reblog this post so it gets more notes!)

[crippleprophet]

flo mask (link), which has N95 and P100 comparable filters, is having a 15% off sale through the end of the month (may 2024) with the code KEVSTURNING45

[feminist-space]

Anti-mask policies and decision makers are using the momentum of anti-masking in the context of covid to also prevent people from accessing or using respirators to protect their breathing and lungs from other hazards -- things that were accepted in many industries as standard safety protocols before 2020.

"“During his first week, Complainant started coughing up black phlegm, his throat and tongue would burn, and he began having breathing problems due to excessive smoke and fumes from the cupola. He notified Sturgeon but nothing changed, and he was not provided a respirator.”

After not receiving a respirator, the lawsuit said the man went to the dispensary room and picked up a respirator himself.

He wore the respirator for the next week until the lawsuit said the safety supervisor saw him wearing it and “immediately became very upset; he rudely admonished the Complainant in front of his co-workers for wearing the respirator and demanded that he take it off immediately.”

According to the lawsuit, he told the safety supervisor he did not feel safe doing his job without it and was pulled into a meeting the next day where he was told he would not be allowed to wear a respirator.

...

After the meeting, the complaint said he was assigned to shovel gravel for the day before going home for the weekend at the end of his shift. On Monday, his employment was terminated.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) opened an investigation into the company after learning of the alleged retaliation, and the DOL said in a statement that OSHA investigators with the Whistleblower’s Protection Program found the company violated federal protections by terminating the employee who exercised their protected rights to request protective equipment."

[son1c]

sonic isn’t keen on being underwater, and bermuda isn’t keen on dealing with sonic’s hydrophobia. so, when the respirators aren’t enough to set sonic’s mind at ease, bermuda takes desperate measures-- he sings to him.

this song isn’t like the rest, though... this time, it’s a soothing melody.

[riderofthemist]

Mx.Papaya : bit.ly/FreeResistArt

Instagram: @ AgitateAndEducate Twitter: @ Bufanator

[aropride]

🙃