Right. It is paradoxical. Re n95 helping more: yes and no. In a high risk care situation (AGMP) when you are in the care space for a defined time period then doffing carefully, then yes. But for shift-long wear, maybe not. The problem with n95 for shift-long use is that they are really, really uncomfortable. It takes tremendous will power to avoid touching/adjusting after it's been on for a while. Staff are more likely to wear their medical mask properly and always, for the entire duration of the shift.

Yes, it is an issue here. Covid is treated as droplet in hospitals in Ontario. That affects PPE practices for HCW and patient flow practices (suspected covid patients in emergency departments can sit in the same space as other patients as long as masked and 2m apart). We use airborne precautions only for aerosol generating procedures. Hospitals and TPTB have been very reluctant to acknowledge aerosol transmission for two main reasons: 1) the current droplet precaution model actually seems to work. We've have very few hospital outbreaks, and most have been traced to staff protocol breaches in break-rooms. Staff covid rates have been lower than community rates. 2) airborne precautions for all suspected covid patients would be near impossible in practice, particularly in emergency departments - we don't have the infrastructure or n95 supply. It's easier to ignore the issue than to acknowledge that we have problem and admit we don't have the resources or political will to make best practice happen. ETA - I'm sure that a cost/benefit analysis has been done bt TPTB, and they have decided that the status quo is acceptable; and that the tremendous expense and impracticality of acknowledging airborne spread isn't worth it.

I think personal responsibility is especially impossible when there aren't social structures in place to make it easy (or even possible) to make the right decisions, like staying home when sick or staying home when one ought to be in quarantine. Things like paid sick leave etc.

I see the same shift wrt more emphasis on personal responsibility. Unfortunately, as we've seen over and over in the past year, a personal responsibility model doesn't work for pandemics, and most especially for this pandemic. Personal responsibility works when the person who makes the choice, be it wise or foolish, is the one who benefits or suffers the consequences. In this pandemic, that's not true. Individuals can make poor choices, and other people suffer the consequences. A presymptomatic or minimally symptomatice person can make an irresponsible choice, and some other vulnerable person become critically ill or die as a result. On a broader level, a whole bunch of people make poor individual choices, the healthcare system gets overwhelmed, and the entire society pays the consequences. Pandemics need collective action, not personal responsibility. Super hard in the US, where the whole culture and economic system seem to based on individual/personal responsibility model.

re efficacy of surgical/medical masks: We are going to see some decent data out of Canada on this, I think. Here the PPE standard for HCW providing covid care is a medical mask, not an n95 (n95's strictly reserved for aerosol generating medical procedures). My hospital uses pleated ear-loop medical masks - essentially equivalent to what you can buy at Costco. Anecdotally, they seems to work. Our HCW covid rates are lower than community rates, and have been for the entire duration of the pandemic. There is at least one head-to-head medical mask vs n95 trail ongoing. Of course, the question of whether medical or surgical masks are effective in protecting against covid in HCW isn't the same as whether or not mask mandates are effective for the general public, but at least will answer the basic question of whether medical masks actually work or not (I think they do, and much better than the 50% I saw quoted up-thread). HCW PPE practices are more than just masking, of course. But if pleated ear-loop masks don't work, then Canada should have had an awful lot more sick HCW.

That's wonderful! (Next trip, you could step up your game and embrace the pee-bottle +/- FUD. Game-changer! 🙂 ).

I don't think so. As per NYT, Pfizer is being used in 97 countries, more than any other vaccine except AstraZeneca

@Not_a_NumberCloser reading of my contest administration instructions: There are two contest dates, one for North and South America, and one for outside North and South America. Strongly implying that international participation is a thing. I think you're good. The eligibility seems stricter for the Euclid only (grade 12 exam). I'm guessing because that's the one with scholarships attached?

I think so. Eligibility page. I see that there is a requirement to attend school in Canada to be and official contestant for the Euclid, but then on the same page: "Any student may write the Euclid contest. Note that both Canadian and international students that write the Euclid contest are eligible for scholarship consideration." So that's a little confusing

I think your plan is fine. Not yet reading at 5 is normal. HWOT sounds like a perfect choice for you. I had a kid with similar handwriting resistance and delayed fine motor skill. We spend a lot of time with HWOT-sized chalk boards (wet,dry,try) using tiny pieces of chalk (to strengthen pincer grip). Also lots of other fine motor skills activities (snipping strips of paper with scissors, sorting pompoms with forceps, pinching plasticine etc). You don't have to buy all the HWOT branded stuff. Most of it can be done cheaply DIY. Dollar-store chalk boards, or MDF with chalkboard paint. I used car detailing pinstriping stick-on tape to make the lines for lower case work. Break your own chalk, cut up sponges into small pieces, cut letter pieces out of cardboard etc. HWOT method is a lot more than workbooks. You might benefit from the instructor's guide, if you don't have it already - there is a lot of information on non-workbook activities. Let you OT know that you're using HWOT. It was developed by an OT. Your OT might be able to help you tweak it to to help your child get the most out of the program.

The only other math contest he's done is Math Kangaroo (which according to their marketing material here is a "game", not a contest). CEMC Gauss contest felt similar to Grade 7 Kangaroo, but Gauss felt a little more serious, and the Gauss questions are definitely better written than Kangaroo.

Or at least the grade 7 one is. My eldest just did the grade 7 contest (Gauss) remotely, and had a very good experience. I thought I'd post to let you all know that this contest is homeschooler friendly - easy to register as a homeschool, and not expensive. $5 CAD per school plus $4 CAD per kid. (I remember writing these myself in high school. They were fun then too!)

I thought this was a good SIRVA article. I think we will see a relative increase in SIRVA with covid mass vax programs. Lots and lots of HCW workers pressed into working mass vax clinics, not all of whom have great training, I don't think, or may have training that's very out of date.

Add a golf umbrella for super luxury car camping 🙂

This is one of the reasons why group hiking is safer than solo (beyond the obvious). Friends = built in equipment redundancy

Good enough reason! But you could cook soup out of a can on your backpacking stove to go with your hotdogs. And boil up some tea!

They're not for me; too tippy, and not versatile enough (I like to play around with cooking while on the trail). I love my trusty Trangia; it's bomb-proof (I actually have two - my dad's 27 model from the 1970's, and a newer 25). Next best white gas MSR whisperlite from the 90's. Funny stove story: I took a winter camping seminar for scouts leaders a couple of years ago. It was bring your own stove and cook your own lunch. The trainers both had cooking mishaps: The jetboil guy's jet boil tipped over and dumped his lunch on the ground, and the white-gas trainer somehow lit his whole stove (and some of the surrounding pine needles on the ground) on fire. Trusty Trangia made soup and grilled cheese without incident. ETA; with plenty to share with the lunchless trainers 🙂 Now I want to know what kind of stove @Ottakeehas!

Why not use your backpacking stove for supper too? Test, test, test.

Yes, extra footwear! You can have rain boots and sneakers and hiking boots and crocs......

So this is meant to be a dry run with your backpacking stuff? (or what backpacking stuff you have so far?) That's a really good idea; it's always best to test equipment in a controlled environment before you take it on the trail. My car camping equipment list is very different than my backpacking list. And my solo car camping list is very different than my family car camping list. Extras that I really appreciate while car-camping solo: a chair (my fave is a taco style chair - they add a lot of comfort to picnic tables), or at the very least, a sit pad or square of foamie a tarp for over the picnic table a propane stove (in addition to my backpacking stove) a hammock base-camp self-inflating sleeping pad plus a foamie pad a real pillow books extra lighting - a small lantern in addition to my headlamp heavy food, like fresh fruit and fresh veg and real milk (tetra-pak) for my tea a thermos (for hot tea) spare nalgene to use as a hot water bottle at night Obviously, if your goal is to test your backpacking stuff, then you should use that. I would have backups of key systems in the car: firelighting (matches, lighter, fire-starters), lighting (spare flashlight), shelter (tarp), extra blanket, and a second stove.

I don't see why not. As a bonus, you mask will actually make it quite discreet I should think.

Weird but true: sniffing isopropyl alcohol prep pads works really well for some people. Especially for short term relief, with essentially no side effects.

You could email Happy Masks and ask them for the details of their Repeat Wash Test. They are pretty good about responding to questions by email. (If you do, let me know what you find out ) 🙂 Airing the ask for a few days will minimized covid self-contamination risk. But the inside surface of masks gets pretty gross - respiratory droplets, sneezes, snot..... I'd probably wash.

Yes. Chest compressions alone is not an aerosol generating procedure. Relatively low risk.

Yes. HCW doing CPR while wearing appropriate PPE (here that would mean n95, faceshield, gown, and gloves) does not count as an exposure. Lack of eye protection would not be acceptable here - it would be counted as an exposure if eye protection was not worn.