Test kit floodgate opening? Masks coming next.
White House plans distribution of 400 million N95 masks as website for ordering at-home test kits goes online. WHO warns the pandemic is "nowhere near over" as hospitalizations, deaths climb.
Although there may never be an end to COVID-19’s “mask confusion,” the Biden White House appears to be trying. On the same day as the online ordering system for delivery of home test kits was scheduled to launch, the White House plans to announce that 400 million N95 masks from the Strategic National Stockpile are being distributed to community health centers, local pharmacies and other points so they can be given out for free to those who need them.
“This is the largest deployment of personal protective equipment in U.S. history,” according to a White House official’s email. “The Administration is leveraging the federal retail pharmacy program and the federal community health center program, so that free masks are available at many of the same convenient and trusted locations Americans go to get vaccinated and boosted.”
The program is expected to be “fully up and running by early February,” said the official, who provided information on condition that their name would not be used.
N95s are highly protective but only when tightly fit so that no air gets in or out without going through the filter. I’ve seen too many people who haven’t tightened the metal nose clip, which means air freely flows, defeating the mask’s protection.
Meanwhile, the website that the president announced last week for Americans to order free at-home test kits, covidtests.gov, launched a day early. The government’s purchase and distribution of first 500 million test kits is estimated to cost about $4 billion, according to a senior administration official.
The website and distribution are being handled by the U.S. Postal Service. Politico reported that some apartment dwellers have already had trouble placing orders on the USPS website.
The Trump White House blocked a plan to automatically send cloth masks to every household early in the pandemic. In that plan, masks were prepackaged with USPS labels and prepared for delivery without requiring specific addresses.
In April 2020, 650 million cloth masks were made and readied for delivery to every American home, but the White House blocked the plan. (Photo and graphic by Doug Levy.)
You can get a lot more than one use out of an N95 if you handle them with care, according to the Washington Post.
How accurate are these at-home kits? Very. A senior scientist at the World Health Organization said Tuesday that the antigen tests are good at picking up COVID-19 infections, including the omicron variant. However, some people are finding that the tests may not reflect infection until after symptoms start. This is one reason why the tests are recommended to be used serially — if you think you might be infected and your test is negative, take another test 2-3 days later. Most importantly, understand that a negative at-home test does not necessarily mean you are COVID-free.
And a few other bits and pieces of news:
World Health Organization scientists and leaders warned against complacency, pointing out that the consequences of omicron infection are still significant even if the illnesses caused are milder. "Make no mistake, omicron is causing hospitalizations and deaths, and even the less severe cases are inundating health facilities,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a media briefing.
A Chinese real estate developer has backed away from. multimillion dollar pledge to support a major COVID-19 research program at Harvard University, according to the Boston Globe and STATNews.
Will “fully vaccinated” include booster doses? Not yet, apparently, but the CDC is now using the phrase “up to date” with vaccines more than “fully vaccinated.” Up to date means vaccinated and boosted, according to a new CDC web page.
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