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(Updated 1/27 with note about checking on KN95 quality)
It appears as much as 10% of people that get Covid are still suffering severe effects months later (including among people that only had mild symptoms) --
Long haulers: Why some people experience long-term coronavirus symptoms
Ongoing effects of long haul Covid:Coughing, Ongoing, sometimes debilitating, fatigue, Body aches, Joint pain, Shortness of breath, Loss of taste and smell — even if this didn’t occur during the height of illness, Difficulty sleeping, Headaches, Brain fog
It's urgently important to wear a mask that fits tight enough and is of good quality and/or multilayer enough to reduce the amount of virus-laden droplets (which are far larger than viral particles) you inhale to a tiny or negligible amount. (see more below)
LONDON – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned Friday that a coronavirus variant first detected in the country in September may be around 30% more deadly than previous versions of the disease.
Johnson unveiled the worrying statistic in a London new conference.
British scientists already had concluded that the variant, known as B.1.1.7, spread between 30%-70% faster than the previous dominant coronavirus strain in the U.K.
New COVID variant discovered in UK may be 30% more lethal: British PM
--------
Both spreading easier and more deadly on average for those that get it.
It's already here in the U.S. widely.
-------------
A new variant of the coronavirus believed to spread more easily has forced the United Kingdom into another lockdown and been detected in at least 33 countries, including the United States. Many of the U.S. cases have no known travel history — meaning the strain is spreading throughout communities. The variant, known as B.1.1.7, is not expected to be resistant to the vaccines rolled out in December, though scientists are racing to learn more about the mutation — and where it has already spread. Below is a primer for the public-health and political ramifications of the concerning development.
The B.1.1.7 (U.K.) strain has been found in at least 21 U.S. states
New COVID Strain Spreading Across U.S.: What We Know
----------------
A more contagious and more deadly Covid, now in the U.S. and spreading.
So, in addition to the emerging realization that as much as 10% of survivors are "long haulers" that suffer for months....the new variants can kill more people, sooner.
How to protect yourself:
Wear a mask in all situations recommended, and at the minimum you need a mask that is tight fitting around the edges and also adequately dense and/or multiple layer. Since even better cloth masks don't always fit tightly or have enough layers of densely woven, often adding a 2nd mask (even a surgical style mask) on top helps.
(Why even non-medical grade masks correctly worn and with layers are far better than no mask or only thin fabric: Having a sufficient mask to block the great majority of floating droplets emitted from a sneeze or cough or loud talking -- such masking greatly reduces the amount of virus you get exposed to if you do get exposed, since the main load of virus is in droplets, which are far larger than the virus itself. Getting exposed to a low amount is very much better than getting exposed to a high amount. Doctors have observed that those that got exposed while wearing masks get milder cases.)
Groups needing special effort:
As we know, those over 50 have increasing risk on average with age. But, even those under 50 that have other common situations need special effort.
Other factors:
Workers exposed to a lot of people such as in a grocery store or other service business with many customers
or being significantly overweight or having hypertension or diabetes, reduced immune function, asthma...or even type A blood.
Additional conditions warranting extra effort include cancer, pregnancy, heart disease, and more:
COVID-19 and Your Health
People in these groups should not only have a multiple-layer tight fitting mask -- which everyone needs -- but also I'd recommend those with more risk obtain for their base layer mask a tight fitting KN-95 of good quality (which you have to check on).
"KN-95 are Chinese N-95's but some of them are of inferior quality and are not tested as rigorously as those made in America or those made by name brand companies such as Honeywell or 3M." (as Richard reminded us below)
One way to compensate for this varied quality is to find out which ones are of known good quality (a friend researched and found one type of good quality and we got that one, but there is more than 1 brand).
Also, there are many N95 fakes to beware of when shopping:
Counterfeit Respirators / Misrepresentation of NIOSH-Approval | NPPTL | NIOSH | CDC
Also, for everyone, good health habits like getting enough sleep, some exercise, taking some modest amount of vitamin D (usually 1,000 iu is plenty) will aid their immune function.
With all of the above, most people can improve their odds against Covid.
It appears as much as 10% of people that get Covid are still suffering severe effects months later (including among people that only had mild symptoms) --
Long haulers: Why some people experience long-term coronavirus symptoms
Ongoing effects of long haul Covid:Coughing, Ongoing, sometimes debilitating, fatigue, Body aches, Joint pain, Shortness of breath, Loss of taste and smell — even if this didn’t occur during the height of illness, Difficulty sleeping, Headaches, Brain fog
It's urgently important to wear a mask that fits tight enough and is of good quality and/or multilayer enough to reduce the amount of virus-laden droplets (which are far larger than viral particles) you inhale to a tiny or negligible amount. (see more below)
LONDON – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned Friday that a coronavirus variant first detected in the country in September may be around 30% more deadly than previous versions of the disease.
Johnson unveiled the worrying statistic in a London new conference.
British scientists already had concluded that the variant, known as B.1.1.7, spread between 30%-70% faster than the previous dominant coronavirus strain in the U.K.
New COVID variant discovered in UK may be 30% more lethal: British PM
--------
Both spreading easier and more deadly on average for those that get it.
It's already here in the U.S. widely.
-------------
A new variant of the coronavirus believed to spread more easily has forced the United Kingdom into another lockdown and been detected in at least 33 countries, including the United States. Many of the U.S. cases have no known travel history — meaning the strain is spreading throughout communities. The variant, known as B.1.1.7, is not expected to be resistant to the vaccines rolled out in December, though scientists are racing to learn more about the mutation — and where it has already spread. Below is a primer for the public-health and political ramifications of the concerning development.
The B.1.1.7 (U.K.) strain has been found in at least 21 U.S. states
New COVID Strain Spreading Across U.S.: What We Know
----------------
A more contagious and more deadly Covid, now in the U.S. and spreading.
So, in addition to the emerging realization that as much as 10% of survivors are "long haulers" that suffer for months....the new variants can kill more people, sooner.
How to protect yourself:
Wear a mask in all situations recommended, and at the minimum you need a mask that is tight fitting around the edges and also adequately dense and/or multiple layer. Since even better cloth masks don't always fit tightly or have enough layers of densely woven, often adding a 2nd mask (even a surgical style mask) on top helps.
(Why even non-medical grade masks correctly worn and with layers are far better than no mask or only thin fabric: Having a sufficient mask to block the great majority of floating droplets emitted from a sneeze or cough or loud talking -- such masking greatly reduces the amount of virus you get exposed to if you do get exposed, since the main load of virus is in droplets, which are far larger than the virus itself. Getting exposed to a low amount is very much better than getting exposed to a high amount. Doctors have observed that those that got exposed while wearing masks get milder cases.)
Groups needing special effort:
As we know, those over 50 have increasing risk on average with age. But, even those under 50 that have other common situations need special effort.
Other factors:
Workers exposed to a lot of people such as in a grocery store or other service business with many customers
or being significantly overweight or having hypertension or diabetes, reduced immune function, asthma...or even type A blood.
Additional conditions warranting extra effort include cancer, pregnancy, heart disease, and more:
COVID-19 and Your Health
People in these groups should not only have a multiple-layer tight fitting mask -- which everyone needs -- but also I'd recommend those with more risk obtain for their base layer mask a tight fitting KN-95 of good quality (which you have to check on).
"KN-95 are Chinese N-95's but some of them are of inferior quality and are not tested as rigorously as those made in America or those made by name brand companies such as Honeywell or 3M." (as Richard reminded us below)
One way to compensate for this varied quality is to find out which ones are of known good quality (a friend researched and found one type of good quality and we got that one, but there is more than 1 brand).
Also, there are many N95 fakes to beware of when shopping:
Counterfeit Respirators / Misrepresentation of NIOSH-Approval | NPPTL | NIOSH | CDC
Also, for everyone, good health habits like getting enough sleep, some exercise, taking some modest amount of vitamin D (usually 1,000 iu is plenty) will aid their immune function.
With all of the above, most people can improve their odds against Covid.
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