(I know it isn’t an influenza virus, but the name is catchy.)
On an older post, commenter Robert remarked on the difficulty of buying masks in the current building concern over the Wuflu. Hey, I’m with you. I picked up 100 standard surgical masks early on, and now you can’t buy the things for love or money. But do you know what you still can buy?
These. This is a half-face respirator. There are a number of brands out there, all of them good. They give you an excellent seal around the mouth and nose. And those pretty purple cartridges are NIOSH P100 rated, meaning they filter out 99.97% of airborne particles. Sound sort of like an N100 mask? It is. The P means it filters out oil as well.
These are good to have around even when there isn’t pandemic in the air. With the right cartridges they also filter out organic solvents, so they’re a good thing to have when painting with stuff like Killz in confined spaces. Well, not than good, absolutely freaking necessary.
Add some good goggles to this and you’re in an excellent position to not have nasties get to your mucous membranes and infect you. I suggest stocking up on these, goggles and spare cartridges before others figure it out. There are also full-face versions, somewhat more expensive but nice if you don’t want to save off facial hair.
Expect this to become a short series, maybe getting longer if the news keeps going downhill. I’ve been watching this for weeks now, and it’s starting to seriously concern me. Not Captain Trips concern, but Spanish Flu concern. The Chinese are lying about the numbers-infected, dead, recovered and the transmissibility. Early numbers, such as these, coming in from more reliable sources seem to indicate that this is Spanish Flu bad, but it could be a lot worse if it passes from person to person more easily.
More as circumstances dictate.
I already had all the needed supplies.
If you don't, then why not? They are cheap and easy to get and (mostly) shelf stable.
Preppers Prep. If not, then they are just Poseuers
I'm the above-mentioned Robert.
Freeholder: thanks for the mask info. I'm unexpectedly working saturday and will be passing a big-box store. Too bad I have a full beard; a sacrifice may have to be made.
B: Over the last few weeks, Amazon has outright canceled two of my orders and today warned me a vendor "has exceeded the time period" for shipping my last order. Sigh. Other sources have come through so I'm good.
We have Wisconsin's first confirmed case here in Dane county and are awaiting test results for 8(10?) UW students who are recently back from Flu Land. Yay. 😐
BTW, while spray painting inside a ship, I found wearing a for-real GI gas mask did little to keep those VOCs or whatever fumes from inducing quite the trip with attendant headache.
B, not everyone is totally prepped for everything that might come along the pike. I'm not and I have no problem admitting it. Money, time or in my case, a spouse who thinks you're crazy, puts limits on what you can do while keeping peace in the family. I also have kids who haven't had a lifetime of accumulating and learning, and neighbors that it will be easier to help than shoot.
I'm happy for those people who are totally prepped up for every possible contingency. I've never met one myself, but I guess they're out there somewhere.