Are you stocking up? What shortages do you expect?

[mommyoffive]

Just now, DawnM said:

I wondered about that, but I didn't have time to keep looking.   

They allow the dogs, and have kayaks, so I am happy.   

Yeah that is a major score.

 

[mommyoffive]

I am stocking up.  If the first time around taught me anything it was be ready for anything.  We were/are spending the summer getting caught up on all the apts we missed for the kids.  I just wish I would have done them sooner in summer.  I thought I had a few more months.  

I haven't had any trouble ordering tennis shoes for my kids.  Lots of sales.

Bought the kids new clothes last week.  They just keep growing and going through things.

Stocking up on food, meds, cleaning items, tp, and just everything.  We will use it so it is no big deal.  Got tons of new masks.  I don't see us not needing those now.  

Add me to the list of people who are SOOO mad at the anitvaxxers.  We shouldn't be here right now.  

 

 

[mommyoffive]

2 hours ago, mlktwins said:

We aren't going on our usual type of vacation.  We've rented a nice town house on a lake about 4 hours from us.  It will be empty for 24 hours before we arrive.  Arriving on a Sunday and leaving on a Thursday.  It will be very laid back, bringing most of our own food (we will do take out, but don't eat inside restaurants), play mini golf, fish, etc.  I am bringing my camera and cross-stitching.  Just going to chill, but we really need a break from here for a few days.

Having a change of scenery is so good for you.  Have fun.

[TechWife]

3 hours ago, Halftime Hope said:

I thought stores/restaurants didn't have enough employees because no one wants to work when they were being comped so much unemployment money by the federal government, not because so many were dying. I could be wrong, but I swear I saw a headline that job recoveries are much better in states that had refused ongoing federal money for extending unemployment.  

Anyway, as to stocking, I'm making sure we have condiments. 🙂 This time it will be harder (food in general) because someone in my house is eating low carb. 

I think I may have to buy an air filter for my office. 8 hours of masking is really hard. 

People aren’t working because their priorities have changed. In the US, retail and food service jobs are low paying, don’t attract the best managers and customers are allowed to be rude and sometimes downright abusive to workers. I think the pandemic has helped many people realize that they value family and overall well being over working for amazingly low wages and being yelled at by their bosses and customers. They are adjusting by seeking better jobs with better pay or by adjusting their lifestyle to do without that income stream. The amount of assistance that is being provided is temporary and isn’t enough for anyone to live off of. 

[prairiewindmomma]

Target and a number of places were out of paper masks. I finally found some at Costco and bought a 3 month supply for our family. 
 

All of the rest of shopping looked mostly normal here except diet sodas (all out) and berries (likely all hit by the high heat event at peak harvest a few weeks ago that caused everything to ripen too early).

[Halftime Hope]

2 hours ago, Tanaqui said:

Why would anybody want to work for less than a living wage in unsafe conditions?

Exactly. It's a bit of a problem, but we have vaxxes now, so everyone should be back to work.  /I need an eyeroll emoji./ 

[Ali in OR]

I'm stocking up on July. It's the best month of the year here. I'm sitting on our new patio furniture enjoying warm summer evenings. And I'm remembering to say (to myself, to dh, to coworkers) "July is awesome."

I bought some plain black fabric to make a couple of new masks for me--I think we'll be wearing them still at school this fall. And you couldn't get plain fabric last year, so all of mine are prints. I wear a lot of black.

I'll keep the shelves filled--I always try to have "the next one" for any product we use. Except toilet paper I have "the next 2 or 3". We have another kid leaving for college this fall, so trying not to go too crazy.

I'm stocking up on summer fruits--same as I do every year. Picked up my 40 lbs of blueberries from a local farm today. Will try to get a box of local peaches in another week or two. This all gets frozen. Already did some blackberry jam and made enough frozen strawberry margarita mix for a year. Unless it's a really bad year! Really, this year still doesn't feel as bad as last year because now we have vaccines. Even if there are a bunch of idiots around not getting them, at least I am vaccinated. And the majority of my town and county.

[Frances]

4 hours ago, Halftime Hope said:

I thought stores/restaurants didn't have enough employees because no one wants to work when they were being comped so much unemployment money by the federal government, not because so many were dying. I could be wrong, but I swear I saw a headline that job recoveries are much better in states that had refused ongoing federal money for extending unemployment.  

Anyway, as to stocking, I'm making sure we have condiments. 🙂 This time it will be harder (food in general) because someone in my house is eating low carb. 

I think I may have to buy an air filter for my office. 8 hours of masking is really hard. 

I just read an article about the huge exodus of restaurant workers that never plan to return to the industry. I think it is a combination of factors contributing to lack of employees including extended unemployment benefits, lack of daycare/in-person schools, people making career changes due to all of the job openings, more early retirements and fewer immigrants, etc.

[ddcrook]

4 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

I did a thing.  Sadly, due to the shipping times, I don’t even know that it will be helpful for the immediate future, but I’ve been wanting it for years, and planned to do it after moving anyway... so we decided to just do it now.

I ordered a freeze dryer.

 

My freeze dryer arrived two months ago and I love it! The quality of our food storage has gone way up. Dh and I have greatly increased our fruit and veggie consumption too. 

[Pawz4me]

8 hours ago, Halftime Hope said:

Exactly. It's a bit of a problem, but we have vaxxes now, so everyone should be back to work.  /I need an eyeroll emoji./ 

From what I can tell the worker shortage in restaurants, stores and other public facing, low paying jobs seems to be due in most part to two things, both of which have already been noted, and neither of which are that people are sitting at home collecting gubmit benefits --

• There's an abundance of higher paying jobs available. Why would anyone take a barely minimum wage job where they're likely to be abused (at least verbally) by rude customers when there are plenty of other jobs available that pay twice (or more) of that and don't involve potential abuse, and
• Quite a few older people who were working part-time at stores and restaurants have chosen to stop working. I have a very small circle, but even with that limited contact I know a few seniors who were working part time low wage jobs just to get them out of the house a bit. To a person they quit last year and don't plan on going back. With the virus circulating and an ever more rude public to deal with it's just not worth it to them. They all decided to get their social interaction somewhere that doesn't involve extremely heightened virus exposure risk, public abuse, and the potential for some nutter with a machine gun to come in and shoot the place up. Except for the seniors who actually need the money I think most of that population is simply done with part time jobs.

 

 

Edited July 22, 2021 by Pawz4me

[TexasProud]

Just bought quite a few more masks. I can't find half of the ones I had before. About to cry. Human beings shouldn't have to live like this. 

[Carrie12345]

7 hours ago, ddcrook said:

My freeze dryer arrived two months ago and I love it! The quality of our food storage has gone way up. Dh and I have greatly increased our fruit and veggie consumption too. 

I’m so glad you love it! I’m hoping it’ll help with my vegetable aversion. For me, it’s more about texture than taste (at least, if I offset the taste with other flavors, lol) so I’m hoping sticking some fd-powdered veg in other stuff will serve me well!

 

[Carrie12345]

Maybe this is a minor/petty thing to some, but I’m not liking it.

I almost never entered a grocery store in the thick of things. I did curbside or went without until my next pick up. But, for the past 2 weeks, give or take, my Walmart has had 0 pick up slots in their 7-day schedule.  It IS high tourist time here, but still doesn’t add up. Last July, I definitely had to book 2-3 days in advance and pick weird times, but there WERE times.  
My normal supermarket does still have available slots, but their app and service just aren’t as easy as WM’s, so it’s frustrating. Oh, and they charge $5 for their lesser service. 😛 And they don’t price match substitutions. And their parking area is a pain.

[Kanin]

11 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

 

Add me to the list of people who are SOOO mad at the anitvaxxers.  We shouldn't be here right now.  

 

 

Same! I've mostly been sad up till now, but this week I suddenly started feeling ANGRY. 

[jrichstad]

14 hours ago, Halftime Hope said:

I thought stores/restaurants didn't have enough employees because no one wants to work when they were being comped so much unemployment money by the federal government, not because so many were dying. I could be wrong, but I swear I saw a headline that job recoveries are much better in states that had refused ongoing federal money for extending unemployment.  

I live in a conservative state that ended extra money quite a while ago, and we have tons and tons of unfilled service jobs. These are bad jobs and people have better options right now. I read one newspaper article about a restaurant that couldn't fill its positions. Poor hard-working restaurant owner, right? In the comments, someone said they'd applied for the job and the manager tried to schedule them for 1.5 hour shifts ... so they turned it down. I don't know how much the pay was going to be, but I'm sure it was at or near our very low minimum wage. Meanwhile, our housing prices have practically doubled in three years.  

I should add that our unemployment rate is at something like 3%, so people ARE working. 

Edited July 22, 2021 by jrichstad

[Halftime Hope]

9 hours ago, Frances said:

I just read an article about the huge exodus of restaurant workers that never plan to return to the industry. I think it is a combination of factors contributing to lack of employees including extended unemployment benefits, lack of daycare/in-person schools, people making career changes due to all of the job openings, more early retirements and fewer immigrants, etc.

Yep, I think you're right. It's a really complex mix of factors. 

 

 

[Innisfree]

Regarding former employees choosing not to go back, a few examples:

My own former employer is desperately trying to hire people for a front-lines position dealing with the public. I did the job for years, had planned to return after kids were present ages, and would be rehired without a doubt, but I'm choosing to stay home. The extra money would be fine, but why would I put myself in a room with lots of other people right now? I can go back later if I want.

Several former coworkers from the same job have chosen to retire over the last year. High public contact positions really aren't very attractive at the moment if one has alternatives.

My cousin, a nurse, retired early in 2020. She and her husband are in their 60s, and he has extra risk factors. She hadn't planned to retire that early, but says she loves being retired and has no intention of returning to work.

I do know a young man who isn't working and probably has been collecting benefits. He didn't work for years before the pandemic, either. He's got multiple personal issues, some consequences of bad choices, some he was never in a position to control. He's actually applied for several jobs this summer without getting hired.

Edited July 22, 2021 by Innisfree

[Halftime Hope]

10 minutes ago, jrichstad said:

I live in a conservative state that ended extra money quite a while ago, and we have tons and tons of unfilled service jobs. These are bad jobs and people have better options right now. I read one newspaper article about a restaurant that couldn't fill its positions. Poor hard-working restaurant owner, right? In the comments, someone said they'd applied for the job and the manager tried to schedule them for 1.5 hour shifts ... so they turned it down. I don't know how much the pay was going to be, but I'm sure it was at or near our very low minimum wage. Meanwhile, our housing prices have practically doubled in three years.  

Just out of curiosity: what better options do people have now? I'm not seeing that much has changed if a worker is unskilled, but then I haven't been out and about and actually looking...work and caring for my family keep me busy. 

Edited July 22, 2021 by Halftime Hope

[Innisfree]

1 minute ago, Halftime Hope said:

out of curiosity: what better options do people have now

For a whole cohort of older workers, retirement is an option. My sample has been taking it.

[Pawz4me]

6 minutes ago, Halftime Hope said:

Just out of curiosity: what better options do people have now? I'm not seeing that much has changed if a worker is unskilled, but then I haven't been out and about and actually looking...work and caring for my family keep me busy. 

Many no-experience-required factory and warehouse positions are available here with starting pay of $15-$20 an hour, and some offer signing bonuses, too.

[Halftime Hope]

2 minutes ago, Innisfree said:

For a whole cohort of older workers, retirement is an option. My sample has been taking it.

If you go back to jrichstad's post, I thought she meant workers having better options and taking those jobs instead of the ones they left. 

For anyone who needs to work to make ends meet, it isn't going to get any easier unless they are willing to change lifestyle in some way. I'm already seeing a pretty steep increase in food prices locally. 

[MEmama]

10 hours ago, Ali in OR said:

I'm stocking up on July. It's the best month of the year here. I'm sitting on our new patio furniture enjoying warm summer evenings. And I'm remembering to say (to myself, to dh, to coworkers) "July is awesome."

made enough frozen strawberry margarita mix for a year. Unless it's a really bad year!

You, my friend, have your priorities right! 😉 

[Pawz4me]

12 hours ago, chiguirre said:

I put in an order for disposable masks. They were amazingly cheap on Amazon, 4 cents apiece. 

 

Can you (or anyone else) provide a link to a recommended brand?

I've considered getting some disposable masks, but (1) I hate the idea of extra waste in the landfill and (2) the reviews are so mixed. Even the ones that get great reviews seem to have not insignificant numbers of reviewers claiming of broken strings, loose fibers, etc. I picked some up at Walmart awhile back and even though we were gentle with them the strings on the first two we tried to use broke before we could even get them on.

[prairiewindmomma]

The Flyt ones at Costco are .11 each. The LifeBuoy ones from Target were good but not in stock yesterday.
 

I do feel guilt about single use masks, but my kids are going to be double masking and I think they will need to to be in school with Delta. 

[Condessa]

Are things way worse in all your areas than I am seeing here?  I am just surprised to see so many people so worried, compared to the situation I see in person.  I have heard about numbers rising, but was under the impression that the people refilling ICUs were almost all non-vaxers, and that the vaccine is successful in mitigating breakthrough cases’ effects.  So vaccinated people aren’t getting very sick.  Is this incorrect?  

[El...]

Dang it, guys, I hope you're wrong about this. But I just bought a big pack of tp, just in case. We'll use it up.

We just finished our dental appointments for a while, and I've got eye and Dr visits set up as soon as possible. We hadn't had dental anything since before covid, and one kid had cavities. 

I don't want to lock down again. I can't fathom what another year of virtual school would be like for our friends. We're very lucky we homeschool. 

[TexasProud]

14 minutes ago, Condessa said:

Are things way worse in all your areas than I am seeing here?  I am just surprised to see so many people so worried, compared to the situation I see in person.  I have heard about numbers rising, but was under the impression that the people refilling ICUs were almost all non-vaxers, and that the vaccine is successful in mitigating breakthrough cases’ effects.  So vaccinated people aren’t getting very sick.  Is this incorrect?  

Well, I straddle 2 counties. One's vax rate is 29 percent. Other one 35 percent. AS of yesterday daily cases 12.2, infection rate 1.25, and positivity 11.8. But those are 7 day AVERAGES. Local news said hospitalizations have tripled over the last week. So I'm guessing the numbers will be MUCH worse a week from now. 

I was going to see my mom this weekend. Yes, we are both vaccinated, but she has significant lung issues. Not worth it to me to possibly give it to her. Yes, MOST people who are vaccinated get mild cases, but some are in ICU and some die. I don't want me or my mom to be one of them.

Edited July 22, 2021 by TexasProud

[Mrs Tiggywinkle]

14 minutes ago, Condessa said:

Are things way worse in all your areas than I am seeing here?  I am just surprised to see so many people so worried, compared to the situation I see in person.  I have heard about numbers rising, but was under the impression that the people refilling ICUs were almost all non-vaxers, and that the vaccine is successful in mitigating breakthrough cases’ effects.  So vaccinated people aren’t getting very sick.  Is this incorrect?  

My local hospital where I work is full.  There are no beds available and they are transferring patients to other hospitals as overflow, but those hospitals are full.  The thing is though—there’s only 3 hospitalized Covid patients according to the county tracker.

We’ve closed the vaccine clinics because the interest dried up. Those who want the vax have gotten it and those who don’t want it aren’t going to get it.  Our numbers are still very, very low despite only a 40 something % vax rate.

[Innisfree]

11 minutes ago, Condessa said:

Are things way worse in all your areas than I am seeing here?  I am just surprised to see so many people so worried, compared to the situation I see in person.  I have heard about numbers rising, but was under the impression that the people refilling ICUs were almost all non-vaxers, and that the vaccine is successful in mitigating breakthrough cases’ effects.  So vaccinated people aren’t getting very sick.  Is this incorrect?  

I think the regional variations are significant.

Here, over 70% of adults are vaccinated. We aren't seeing much delta yet (though it's been a few days since I looked at the numbers). I do expect delta to increase, but hope the vaccination numbers will prevent hospital overwhelm. 

Places where most people aren't vaccinated will likely be more heavily affected.

My impression is that the vast majority of vaccinated people don't get very sick, but a few do. I don't think we have really good information yet, since this is so new. I've barely stopped masking, did enjoy a few indoor restaurant dinners lately, but will probably mask more again and be more cautious as delta moves in. I will be watching how things go. We're still trying to enjoy summer.

Supply issues may still cause disruptions, but at this point I'm feeling pretty philosophical about that. We have some supplies, and we can be somewhat flexible. We're doing the same as @prairiewindmomma, taking care of dental appointments and eyeglasses. I may lay in a few Christmas presents in case of problems later, but nothing extreme. I never know what people will want months in advance anyway.

[Carrie12345]

15 minutes ago, elroisees said:

Dang it, guys, I hope you're wrong about this.

My hope is always to be “wrong”. 🙂. But to be fine if I’m not.

[mommyoffive]

23 minutes ago, Condessa said:

Are things way worse in all your areas than I am seeing here?  I am just surprised to see so many people so worried, compared to the situation I see in person.  I have heard about numbers rising, but was under the impression that the people refilling ICUs were almost all non-vaxers, and that the vaccine is successful in mitigating breakthrough cases’ effects.  So vaccinated people aren’t getting very sick.  Is this incorrect?  

I think what makes it worse right now too is that kids under 12 have 0 protection.  0.  Most places don't have mask mandates anymore.  I have heard that lots of schools are doing nothing when bringing the kids back into school this year.  So they have no vaccine, no mitigation, and a worse variant.  I think the adults that have 2 shots have good protection, but I think we are going to hear of more and more breakthrough cases as this gets worse.    Our state is at 51% for vaccines.  

[Condessa]

11 minutes ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle said:

My local hospital where I work is full.  There are no beds available and they are transferring patients to other hospitals as overflow, but those hospitals are full.  The thing is though—there’s only 3 hospitalized Covid patients according to the county tracker.

We’ve closed the vaccine clinics because the interest dried up. Those who want the vax have gotten it and those who don’t want it aren’t going to get it.  Our numbers are still very, very low despite only a 40 something % vax rate.

So your officials are directly lying to the public?  That is very scary.

[mommyoffive]

Just now, Carrie12345 said:

My hope is always to be “wrong”. 🙂. But to be fine if I’m not.

I would love to be wrong.  I wanted to be wrong when I was stocking up in 2020 and all my real life friends told me it was nuts.  Nothing would ever happen here.  Covid was just a cold (people in medical and health told me that) and that we would never be wearing masks like people did in Asia.   I want to be so wrong on this.  I don't want to go through this again.

[prairiewindmomma]

4 minutes ago, Condessa said:

So your officials are directly lying to the public?  That is very scary.

Not necessarily. Hospitals are pretty close to full in normal times. They run pretty tight margins. Add a bump in RSV or a holiday weekend with a lot of injuries or a heat wave and you can go onto overflow pretty quickly. You are full, but it’s not covid.

[prairiewindmomma]

I think it’s going to be bumpy, but it’s not going to be April 2020. I am not Concerned. 
 

Schools here are prioritizing full days and brick and mortar. Workplaces are calling people back. Delta is scary for the unvaxxed but I think as many people have had the opportunity to be vaxxed they are going to let it blow through, probably with mask mandates for all. That just means it’s going to be bumpy for the rest of us. Yes, some vaxxed people will become ill, but most will be asymptomatic or only mildly ill. The vax is decently effective, way better than influenza shot efficacy.

 

in the parts of the world where they haven’t been vax Ed, that is where it will be ugly. And we get a lot of our stuff from outside the US.

[Condessa]

Seeing this, I find myself very glad that the cousins all have covid right now. My kid on chemo is high-risk.   If things do get worse, we homeschool, so it is easy enough for us to isolate if need be (other than doctor visits).  I will feel more comfortable with having some contact with the public-schooled cousins after they have all already had it.

[Arcadia]

1 hour ago, Pawz4me said:

Can you (or anyone else) provide a link to a recommended brand?

 

59 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

The Flyt ones at Costco are .11 each. The LifeBuoy ones from Target were good but not in stock yesterday.

The strings for the black FLYT ones at Costco tend to break more often for us while their light blue ones didn’t break as often. We have to air the contents of the box because DS15 dislike the new mask smell.

I have been double masking for months because of hay fever and then the news about RSV being in season. 

[Carrie12345]

41 minutes ago, Condessa said:

Are things way worse in all your areas than I am seeing here?  I am just surprised to see so many people so worried, compared to the situation I see in person.  I have heard about numbers rising, but was under the impression that the people refilling ICUs were almost all non-vaxers, and that the vaccine is successful in mitigating breakthrough cases’ effects.  So vaccinated people aren’t getting very sick.  Is this incorrect?  

In raw numbers, my county doesn’t sound disastrous, but comparing the charts to 18 months of previous charts it appears pretty ominous. Especially when considering our comparatively decent vaccination rates. I definitely feel my 10yo is at the highest risk he’s been thus far.

[Mrs Tiggywinkle]

20 minutes ago, Condessa said:

So your officials are directly lying to the public?  That is very scary.

Who’s lying? I don’t understand the question.

Edit: Oh, I get it—no, we are absolutely full of patients, but only 3 have Covid.  We are slammed with RSV, flu, and then the usual respiratory and cardiac issues that you always have. We don’t do serious trauma, so it’s all medical patients.  The number of  flu and RSV cases is unusual for this time of year.

Edited July 22, 2021 by Mrs Tiggywinkle

[mommyoffive]

1 hour ago, Pawz4me said:

Can you (or anyone else) provide a link to a recommended brand?

I've considered getting some disposable masks, but (1) I hate the idea of extra waste in the landfill and (2) the reviews are so mixed. Even the ones that get great reviews seem to have not insignificant numbers of reviewers claiming of broken strings, loose fibers, etc. I picked some up at Walmart awhile back and even though we were gentle with them the strings on the first two we tried to use broke before we could even get them on.

We have the walmart Disposable ones too and will have one or two that do that and then the rest boxes are totally fine.   I just picked up a ton  more on super sale discount.   

[elegantlion]

56 minutes ago, Condessa said:

Are things way worse in all your areas than I am seeing here?  I am just surprised to see so many people so worried, compared to the situation I see in person.  I have heard about numbers rising, but was under the impression that the people refilling ICUs were almost all non-vaxers, and that the vaccine is successful in mitigating breakthrough cases’ effects.  So vaccinated people aren’t getting very sick.  Is this incorrect?  

My county has a 21% vaccine rate. Although I am vaccinated, as are those in my immediate family, I still mask when going out. I am immune compromised and it's been recommended that I avoid unvaxed people. I also live in an area where most people are no longer masking. I'm not worried, as much as cautious. The low vaccine rate is annoying and frustrating. 


My budget and space don't allow for stocking up. I have been buying an extra of vitamins and OTC meds. It's more to avoid having to go out just for that one thing. We generally shop Aldi, so they don't carry everything we need. 

As a student, I'm also concerned about things like ILL closing down again. In my discipline, a lot of what I need has to be ILL'd and I'm preparing for comps this fall - so all the reading. 

[chiguirre]

1 hour ago, Pawz4me said:

Can you (or anyone else) provide a link to a recommended brand?

I bought these because they were inexpensive and have more than 7000 reviews with 4.5 stars.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08852WYM2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[KSera]

2 hours ago, Pawz4me said:

Can you (or anyone else) provide a link to a recommended brand?

I've considered getting some disposable masks, but (1) I hate the idea of extra waste in the landfill and (2) the reviews are so mixed. Even the ones that get great reviews seem to have not insignificant numbers of reviewers claiming of broken strings, loose fibers, etc. I picked some up at Walmart awhile back and even though we were gentle with them the strings on the first two we tried to use broke before we could even get them on.

I buy KF94s and rotate through them and reuse. Someone tested a bunch of them and didn’t find any significant change in their filtering abilities when reused, and even when left in the car in the sun. They fit much better than a surgical style mask and have to meet a high filtration standard to receive the KF94 certification. 

[mommyoffive]

1 minute ago, KSera said:

I buy KF94s and rotate through them and reuse. Someone tested a bunch of them and didn’t find any significant change in their filtering abilities when reused, and even when left in the car in the sun. They fit much better than a surgical style mask and have to meet a high filtration standard to receive the KF94 certification. 

KN95 Face Masks | Buy Online | Bona Fide Masks™

They  have some good sales on KN95s and N95s

[TechWife]

3 hours ago, Halftime Hope said:

Just out of curiosity: what better options do people have now? I'm not seeing that much has changed if a worker is unskilled, but then I haven't been out and about and actually looking...work and caring for my family keep me busy. 

Hospitals are paying sign on bonuses for entry level jobs where no to little training is required prior to hiring. Combine that with decent wages, benefits and a working environment where people are extremely careful about virus prevention makes a lot of these jobs attractive to some. A nearby city recently advertised heavily that they were seeking both firefighters and linemen, paid training, no experience required, no degree required. Manufacturing companies have been hiring as well - no experience or previous training required. These are just the examples from my general area that I remember off of the top of my head. Also, I know a couple of moms of school age children  that took the lunch shift at restaurants catering to business people. They were laid off and don’t plan on returning to the field.

[Spryte]

29 minutes ago, KSera said:

I buy KF94s and rotate through them and reuse. Someone tested a bunch of them and didn’t find any significant change in their filtering abilities when reused, and even when left in the car in the sun. They fit much better than a surgical style mask and have to meet a high filtration standard to receive the KF94 certification. 

This is what we do with our KN95s.  We wear them (each person has an assigned color) then hang them up and let them just sort of hang out for a week or two.  In the meantime, we wear clean ones and just keep doing the same thing, rotating through.  
 

We also wear Happy Masks, so the KN95s aren’t necessarily an every day thing.  

[Katy]

I’m scared too.  The story of that healthy (and skinny) 5 year old in Georgia dying from Covid with no pre-existing conditions is terrifying and had me crying this morning. A few more deaths like that and it might get worse than last year. 

I don’t see how schools can carry on as usual if Delta rips through schools like a stomach flu.

[KSera]

1 hour ago, KSera said:

I buy KF94s and rotate through them and reuse. Someone tested a bunch of them and didn’t find any significant change in their filtering abilities when reused, and even when left in the car in the sun. They fit much better than a surgical style mask and have to meet a high filtration standard to receive the KF94 certification. 

If anyone’s interested, this is the spreadsheet the aerosol guy has put together where he’s recorded all of his test results for the masks he has tested. What I like is that he tests them as worn, not just the mask fabric itself. Now, of course, that’s for his face, so it doesn’t mean someone else will get the same results on their face, but I go for whatever gives me the best fit to try to match my results as closely as possible to what he was getting.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1M0mdNLpTWEGcluK6hh5LjjcFixwmOG853Ff45d3O-L0/htmlview

 

eta: I hadn’t  looked at his data in a couple months, and one thing that’s interesting to see there is that he has some surgical masks tested versus the same brand KF94 and versus the surgical mask when worn with a mask brace. It shows how much fit matters. The surgical masks consistently do not perform as well when worn as the KF94s, but if you add a mask brace, it boosts it to be about equivalent.

Edited July 22, 2021 by KSera

[jrichstad]

5 hours ago, Halftime Hope said:

If you go back to jrichstad's post, I thought she meant workers having better options and taking those jobs instead of the ones they left. 

A $15/ hr warehouse job with a somewhat regular schedule (I mean, these jobs aren't great either, but relatively) seems like it'd be much more appealing than a minimum wage or less restaurant job with short, irregular hours and mean customers.

I'm definitely not an expert in our local economy--I only know what I've been reading in our newspaper and local sites. I do know that our extra unemployment money is long gone and our county unemployment rate as of May 2021 is 2.7%. People are working. If service jobs aren't being filled, it's because they're not offering competitive pay or conditions. 

[Carrie12345]

18 minutes ago, jrichstad said:

A $15/ hr warehouse job with a somewhat regular schedule (I mean, these jobs aren't great either, but relatively) seems like it'd be much more appealing than a minimum wage or less restaurant job with short, irregular hours and mean customers.

I'm definitely not an expert in our local economy--I only know what I've been reading in our newspaper and local sites. I do know that our extra unemployment money is long gone and our county unemployment rate as of May 2021 is 2.7%. People are working. If service jobs aren't being filled, it's because they're not offering competitive pay or conditions. 

Daaaang!

My county is at 7.5%, but the lowest it’s been in 10 years is 5.3, so we can’t exactly expect less than 3!