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Many people have stepped up their guard as the highly transmissible Delta variant made its way into the United States, increasing the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Some people have resumed wearing masks wherever they go, while others are stocking up on basic necessities. Stores like Costco have already had to recreate temporary buying limits as people start hoarding toilet paper and bottled water again. And now another COVID essential is selling fast, prompting doctors to warn. Read on to find out which product you might want to get your hands on now, as it’s completely sold out.
Children’s masks are in high demand as schools reopen, says The Wall Street Journal. Happy Masks, a popular mask company that sells a five-layer children’s mask with a polyester outer layer and three filters, told the outlet that its 22 models are currently sold out. Customers now have to sign up on a waiting list to potentially get their hands on one of these masks, even if the company replenishes them twice a week.
According to the founders, who attended MIT Sloan School of Management and Harvard Business School, the masks provide 99.9% bacterial and viral filtration. Happy Masks has won an almost fanatic following and has been recommended by doctors from coast to coast, including by Nupur Kumar, DO, a Los Angeles-based family physician. “I always recommend this mask,” she said on the company’s website, according to the Los Angeles Times. “I speak as a mom and it’s about protecting your family.”
The manufacturers behind Flo Mask, a children’s mask made in part of liquid silicone rubber and claiming to filter more than 99.8% of viruses, say their masks are also out of stock, with further shipments expected later this month. -this.
At the start of the pandemic, children were not a major concern as they were not infected with the virus at the same rate or to the same degree of severity as adults. But things have certainly changed. According to data released on September 13 by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), there have been more than 243,000 new cases of COVID in children over the past week, representing an increase of almost 240% compared to early July, when children represented roughly about 70,000 cases.
“After declining in early summer, children’s cases have increased exponentially with almost 500,000 cases in the past two weeks,” said AAP.
COVID vaccines are not yet approved for children under 12 in the United States and current projections do not anticipate vaccination approval for younger age groups until the end of October, that is. why many parents are eagerly looking for very effective masks.
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According to WSJ, highly effective children’s masks are selling more now as parents worry about school-related outbreaks due to the Delta variant and because regular cloth masks were rated less effective amid this highly iteration. transmissible form of COVID. A peer-reviewed study for publication in the journal Science and pre-printed on August 31 examined the effectiveness of different masks against the spread of COVID among 340,000 adults in 600 villages in rural Bangladesh. According to the study, cloth masks offered a filtration efficiency of only 37%, compared to the 95% provided by surgical masks made with three layers of 100% non-woven polypropylene.
“Cloth masks can be 10% or 20% effective, [which is] not great against the Delta variant, ” Ashish jha, MD, the dean of Brown’s School of Public Health, said in a Sept. 5 appearance on Fox News Sunday. “Considering the Delta variant that exists, you probably need to upgrade your mask.”
Michael Osterholm, PhD, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told STAT News he would specifically ask children to wear an N95 to school, noting that cloth face masks do not protect against a variant as contagious as Delta. In an interview with CNN in early August, Osterholm said that many widely used face masks fall short of the challenge of preventing the spread of Delta, saying it is time for people to upgrade cloth masks. “We need to talk about better masking,” he argued. “We need to talk about N95 respirators, which would do a lot for people who have not yet been vaccinated or who have not been infected before. Protect them and prevent other people who might be infected after being vaccinated from exhaling the virus.”
RELATED: 60% of Virus Experts Won’t Do These 6 Things Right Now, Data Shows.
Despite new research on the effectiveness of sheet masks, this may be your best bet if other children’s masks are out of stock. Any mask is better than no mask, Megan ranney, MD, an emergency physician and associate team at Brown University School of Public Health, told the WSJ.
“The best mask is the best quality mask your child will tolerate,” Ranney added. A child’s mask should seal against the face with no spaces for air to escape, as well as have a metal nose bridge that can hug your child’s nose, scientists told WSJ.
John volckens, PhD, professor and aerosol scientist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo., Also told the outlet that if you must use a sheet mask for your child, either for availability or for comfort, you can make it more effective by adding a filter layer or surgical mask if your child can tolerate double masking.
RELATED: This COVID Essential is Disappearing From Store Shelves.
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