It’s been about three or so months since the US was hit with this plague virus. China has had its reactions (could have been a lot better; next time believe your doctors & scientists, not everything is a pr opportunity), Korea has had its reactions (This is what “handling the problem effectively” looks like). The US has had its reactions (This is what “Let’s try stupidity, it’s what we’re great at” looks like. And knock off the “blue is for heroes” bullsh*t, give out hazard pay and adequate, free healthcare). And countless other nations.

Many people lost jobs, have been affected or infected, died, the lot. The plague would probably not be such a major bother if there was actually a decent response to it. For example, Korea never had a lockdown. But many people in the US had “coronavirus parties”. One nation is slowly opening back up, holding concerts and sports practice, the other is whining far beyond reason about why they still have to stay inside their house … because they don’t stay inside their house and hold coronavirus parties.

I have been staying home (then again, I’m a homebody and I rather keep my distance from people even when there isn’t a rampant pestilence haunting the streets and boroughs) and spending my time 3D printing masks because I have a 3D printer and managed to find free cads online (3dprint.nih.gov). I have modded a couple cads because the designs had a good idea but kinda had a residual glimmer of suckage remaining (weren’t for wider noses, different faces, etc). I also invented a elastic strap for my usage because I like using thread and fiber feels better than unbreathing elastic.

 

A decent mask I didn’t have to mod (outside of sizing) and fairly easy to scale for custom sizes. The whitish strips are my design and the threads are hand braided. Both mask and clasps are on the 3D print site.

 

Another mask I did was printed in flexifilament, TPU material. It is a bit of a pain because I dislike printing in TPU, it has wisps while printing and after production is annoying. But it is useful due to its squishy nature.

Fits well, just need to mod where you put the filters because of how the slots are designed. The original maker made them for cotton rounds but there are a cavalcade of issues with that

Woo. These are two of the several versions I have made. I use activated charcoal wipes as filters because they work in virus containment.

Also, many states are starting to open back up again, for economic reasons. Bad reasons but economic reasons. Here is the thing: a lot of states are still on the ascending part of the graph as far as “flattening the curve” is concerned. What this means is that we are not doing a great job, at all. Open states means increased transmissions, which has happened countless times everywhere across the globe. Everywhere where there is opening up, there are increased infections. Even Korea had a brief spike but because they’re on it, they quickly managed to tie the spike of cases to a bunch of clubs in Seoul’s Itaewon District and shut all of the clubs down. Actually, clubs were forced to close all over the nation of South Korea because that was the smart thing to do. Daegu, the province where the first flare of cases occurred wasted no time shutting theirs down when they heard what happened in Itaewon. Are club attendees bummed? Yes. But the privilege of dancing poorly to a BTS song over watery speakers is not enough justification to let another major wave rip through Korea. And because they have testing so widely available, the South Korean government has been insisting that if you went to a club in Itaewon recently, get tested – no matter if you have symptoms or not. Here’s why: One person was an asymptomatic “super spreader” (meaning they shed off viruses a lot more than the average person) and in one night, visited five clubs. Dozens were infected. Actually, almost one hundred. All because of one person’s club hopping while they were blithely unaware they were carrying the plague. And this was after Korea spent very careful consideration about opening back up after having super low numbers (I am talking one or two new cases a day, if nothing at all). The USA is not doing this. No real, careful planning. No addressing spikes (the USA can’t even manage not having 1-2 new cases in an hour, let alone a day), no free, unfettered access to testing, nothing that is going to really help mitigate the virus. No state should be opening up until it is definitely established that Americans can maintain social distancing and other virus abatement measures. There have been coronavirus parties. It is beyond obvious that Americans can’t.

If you can stay home, even after your state opens up, stay home. If you can’t, wear a mask (at all times), wipe down everything and keep everyone at a distance. Someone sneezes in a room? Try to stand back even further. There is no vaccine but there are plenty of people who are very happy to sacrifice lives for selfish money reasons.

Remember, if you can’t purchase a mask, make one:

 

 

If you can, it is most important to stay home. Just stay home and wash your hands.