A Happy Healthy Thanksgiving

Holiday Gathering Without Covid-19

Our holiday tips from a year ago remain valid today: being outside if your climate allows, having a good amount of fresh air and using HEPA air purifiers if you are going to be inside, doing home antigen tests, and even isolating ahead of time if you have someone particularly at risk.

But now we have actual research evidence that you probably need to do only one of these things—the antigen tests. (See Aug. 5th, 2022 blog post.)

Although I would add that good fresh air ventilation is always a good thing—with a house full of more people than usual, having a few windows cracked open provides fresh air and prevents overheating if you’re in a cool climate.

For the antigen testing, all that is needed is for all participants (including children age 2 and older) do the testing on the same day, prior to gathering together.

And if the family event lasts more than one day, it’s important to re-test each morning. Each daily test, if done properly, means that the person is almost certainly not contagious for the day.


Buyers’ Guide to Home Antigen Tests

There are dozens of brands of covid-19 home antigen tests. A lot of them are made in China, which I don’t find palatable, so those are excluded from the following recommended brands.

Abbott BinaxNOW
This test was the one we recommended a year ago because of its good record of accuracy. Of all the ones we have tried, it is the easiest to use, as there is no open vial of liquid. Results in 15 minutes. Widely available at drug stores—Walmart has them for about $10 a test.

Abbott BinaxNOW Image

InteliSwab COVID-19 Rapid Test
This is another unique design in that the test card and the nose swab are all together. After swabbing both nostrils, the probe goes into an open vial, and that’s it—results in 30 minutes. Moderately available including now at Amazon for about $9 a test.

InteliSwab COVID-19 Rapid Test Image

All the Rest
Most of the rest of the test kits are of the most common original design, with an open vial of liquid, a test swab, and then a slightly more complicated procedure of:

- collecting the swab sample from each nostril,
- stirring the swab in the vial,
- carefully removing the swab while squeezing the sides of the plastic vial,
- putting a cap on the vial,
- and dispensing a few drops out through the cap onto the test card.

Most of these take 10-15 minutes to get results.

We have tried several of this type that are made in China (oops), are just as expensive as BinaxNOW, or make it very difficult to get the cap put on the vial (AccessBio CareStart). We haven’t yet found a good one at a good price, not made in China. If you know of any, please let us know!

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Pivoting for Covid-19 Safety

BACKGROUND

Setbacks: Recently, there have been several covid-19 cases of people we know under circumstances that “should not” have led to infections. The apparent exposures were:

  • outside in full fresh air, but with no masks, and

  • inside with an N95 mask for 5-15 minutes

And we know from a previous case history (see Jan. 20, 2022 blog post) that “green zone” fresh air ventilation by itself, or with masks, is not enough to prevent covid-19 infection after prolonged contact.

Good news: on the other hand, we have support for two powerful tools for avoiding infections:

  • Daily antigen testing (see Aug. 5, 2022 blog post) for all people who will be together inside a building – negative results indicate that no one is currently contagious with covid-19.

Therefore, we have updated our company policy on covid-19 safety to increase air safety now and prepare for the expected winter surge. These are the same practices that are particularly appropriate for any short-term gathering of people such as one-time workshops and weekly or monthly sessions.


NEW COMPANY POLICY ON COVID-19 SAFETY:

In the office – primary measure:

  • daily antigen testing for each person in attendance

Supplemental measures – for good health in general:

  • fresh air levels above 30 cfm/person (CO2 below 800 ppm)

  • HEPA air filtration above 60 cfm/person

  • humidification in winter to reduce the count of any virus in the air – a new posting coming soon on this

Out of the office:

  • we all share the same approach of being active to avoid infection

  • wear a Safetulator Fresh Air Mask any time entering a building on company business

  • on personal business, some of us will check CO2 levels when going into buildings, leave quickly if they are “in the red”, and if they are “in the green”, we may stay for a couple of minutes without a mask. Others of us like to automatically wear a Safetulator mask and not use a meter.

Covid-19 testing (without symptoms):

  • the company provides antigen tests as needed by employees for use on work days

Return to in-person work after having covid-19 when we have:

  • three negative antigen tests (24 hours apart) AND

  • minimum 14 days after first symptoms (or positive PCR test)

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Join the Ventilation Revolution

Actually, there is not yet a ventilation revolution. People keep calling for it, as in the recent White House conference, but then if past is prolog, nothing much will happen.

But YOU can help along the revolution to have healthy amounts of fresh air in buildings—to dilute and exhaust the covid-19 virus along with the viruses for flu, the common cold, and others. Just take your Safetulator™ Fresh Air Meter (or any accurate CO2 meter) with you whenever you go into a building, and especially when a lot of people are gathering. You can set up your meter for attendees to get a look at, and for those who want to learn more, here is a convenient info sheet (click on link for pdf version) that you can print and cut in half. Then people can find out the meaning of the current meter reading.

COLOR-CODED CO2 READINGS EXPLAINED

And for those who want even MORE information, you can tell them that not only does fresh air reduce the risk of getting sick, it also lets your brain work better! "Improved ventilation can … increase learning and attention. A 2010 study showed that kids performed better on standardized tests when ventilation rates were higher. [And a] 2016 study found that office workers’ cognitive performance improved when they were exposed to lower carbon dioxide levels, which is a marker of better ventilation.”

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/indoor-air-quality-improvements-in-schools-will-reduce-covid-transmission-and-help-students-learn/article65987888.ece

So … breathe fresh air - reduce your risk of illness - and be smarter!

 

Today is the one-year anniversary of the blog!

As the covid-19 pandemic continues with about 400 American lives lost each day, our introductory video (Oct. 14, 2021) advocating better fresh air ventilation is still 100% relevant.

We will continue the blog posts every two weeks, with practical measures for covid-19 safety. As always, we welcome your questions, comments, challenges and successes.

 

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Covid-19 News Collection

Here is a roundup of recent news, along with some explanations, suggestions, and speculations.

Protective Measures You Don’t Need To Do

—> Six-foot “social distancing.” The CDC has FINALLY dropped the six-foot distance recommendation. But they never admitted they had it wrong from the start—see our post of Nov. 24.

Reference: https://www.jems.com/coronavirus/cdc-drops-quarantine-screening-recommendations-for-covid-19/

—> Use face shields, or any type of fixed shield. This has been obvious to anyone paying attention to the colossal early error that blamed the virus spread on large droplets instead of aerosols (see blog post Mar. 21 for the fascinating story), but here is a study specifically on face shields: "Face shields fail to provide high level of protection against COVID-19."

Reference: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20220728/Face-shields-fail-to-provide-high-level-of-protection-against-COVID-19-finds-study.aspx

Both Vaccine- and Natural-Immunity Are Waning

—> Pretty obvious that vaccines and natural immunity are not doing much to prevent infections (or to prevent spreading) when the fully-vaccinated Pfizer CEO gets the disease TWICE within three months!

Reference: https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/24/health/pfizer-ceo-positive-covid-19/index.html

—> "Forty-four percent of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 this spring were fully vaccinated and boosted”, per a CDC report. Note that this is for HOSPITALIZATIONS, which is what vaccinations are supposed to be good at preventing.

Reference: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/patient-safety-outcomes/44-of-covid-19-admissions-involved-boosted-patients-this-spring-3-notes.html

—> "Waning immunity, not BA.5, [is] fueling most COVID-19 reinfections.”

"Around 98 percent of COVID-19 reinfections are occurring in patients previously infected with the virus more than 90 days ago, suggesting that waning immunity — rather than highly transmissible variants — is [responsible]."

Reference: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/waning-immunity-likely-fueling-shorter-covid-19-reinfection-windows-data-suggests.html

Some Hope for Future Testing Technologies?

—> Imagine you are on the way in to a restaurant or an airport, and you speak a few words into a microphone, and then find out whether you have covid-19 or not! One of my friends called this “ridiculous” but who knows? Trained dogs can reliably detect the smell of covid-19 (why have we not used this more!) so I’ll keep an open mind to new, instant detection methods. In the meantime, daily antigen tests for all persons involved in an indoor activity are the best available (and sadly, seldom-used) technology—see Aug. 5 blog post for how to have a zero-spread day.

Reference: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20220905/AI-model-detects-COVID-19-infection-in-peoplee28099s-voices.aspx

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The Pandemic Is Not Over

To the Editor of The Keene Sentinel:

Please run an error correction for your Sept. 10-11 front-page headline:

“As the pandemic subsides, college presidents course correct”

And the electronic and filename versions are even worse:

“As pandemic ends, college presidents course correct”

No responsible party is saying the pandemic is over—or even “subsiding". Just the opposite. For example, the same weekend, the Wall Street Journal ran a story: "Covid-19 Is Still Killing Hundreds of Americans Daily”. Over the past few months, the more-or-less 400 daily deaths translate to about 150,000 a year at this rate. (This is three times the highest annual flu deaths in the past decade.) In New Hampshire, our rate of community spread and deaths this summer is about twice that of last year.

And the fall surge hasn’t even started yet. The Biden administration has warned that the U.S. could see 100 million COVID-19 infections in the fall and winter. As students go back to school, and people of all ages go inside buildings with less fresh air, and the virus remains active with more variants in the pipeline, a fall/winter surge seems inevitable. Take a look at the graph below of NH deaths, courtesy of Covid Act Now.

As an engineer who has been dealing with the pandemic since the first summer, I know that there are many simple actions that people and building managers can take to reduce the spread and risk. They include increased fresh air ventilation, antigen tests by the right people at the right time, and highly effective masks for higher-risk situations. (These and other topics, including fresh air meters and other tools, are presented on my website at https://www.kohlerandlewis.com/covid-19blog .)

Instead of declaring the pandemic to be ending, it would be more useful if The Sentinel would run a weekly reminder as long as it is still here, such as a graph of the average daily covid-19 deaths over the last 6-12 months.

Roy Swain
Westmoreland

NH Covid Cases according to Covid Act Now

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Safe Airplane Flying

We all know of people who have now been flying without contracting covid-19, and perhaps some who were not so lucky. (The odds of catching the disease on a plane ranged from 0.1% (2-hour flight) to 7% (10-hour flight) in late 2020, according to an MIT simulation and a small, real-world study, respectively. That was when masks were still required, and with a less infectious variant compared to the current dominant BA-5—today’s risks will be higher. See Insider.com 8/2/22.)

I ventured out into this brave new world last month and am happy to report that I came home without the infection.

I utilized techniques and gadgets developed over the last two years, most importantly the mask systems that pair an N95 mask of your choice with a small, battery-powered HEPA filter and fan unit (see blog post Jan. 4). (You can buy them online, or from us for $100. Our version includes improved masks, plus a small modification to improve performance.)

Also useful was a Safetulator Fresh Air Meter—in this case, a new model that is even more portable, and has the added feature of a short warning beep if the CO2 level exceeds 1000 ppm. On our scale, this level is the upper end of the “yellow zone”. (These you can also buy online, or from us for $100. Our version includes improved labeling, detailed instructions, a calibration check, and recalibration if needed.)

Using the meter, I found the amount of fresh air usually was not very good. The airports ranged from 700-1200 ppm (less than 800 is the CDC recommendation), and the airplanes ranged from 650 to 2000. Once in the air, the airplanes were good or fair (650 to 1100), but on the ground, the amount of fresh air was much less, and the CO2 levels were higher.

The Portland, Oregon airport had great fresh air, less than 750, and was uncrowded when I was there. I was able to have a leisurely meal, and I set up another gadget at the table—a portable fan with HEPA filter that blew 30 cfm of virus-free air in my direction.

I did covid-19 testing frequently on both ends of the flight, and I’ve now had a negative PCR test four days after my return, so for my test case of one, everything worked well!

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