from the article: "California scientists have discovered a homegrown coronavirus strain that appears to be propagating faster than any other variant on the loose in the Golden State.
California scientists have discovered a homegrown coronavirus strain that appears to be propagating faster than any other variant on the loose in the Golden State....
...“There was a homegrown variant under our noses,” said Dr. Charles Chiu, a laboratory medicine specialist at UC San Francisco who examined the samples from the northern part of the state with collaborators from the California Department of Public Health. Were they not on the hunt for the U.K. strain and other viral variants, he said, “we could have missed this at every level.”.....
..To clarify B.1.426’s role in the surge, investigators will need to determine just how much devastation it is capable of producing. That inquiry will focus on its transmissibility as well as its ability to circumvent the tools — including masks, drugs and vaccines — that can be used to bring the pandemic under control.
For now, both sets of researchers doubt they have found a lone actor. But they may have caught an accomplice."
https://www.latimes.com/science/sto...strain-homegrown&utm_id=22300&sfmc_id=2422978
So with these variants popping up everywhere, I think I might start double masking like the big shots on TV do. That is, I would put a cloth mask over a KN95.
From the article "Almost since the beginning of the pandemic, experts have told the public about the importance of three things: washing your hands, maintaining a social or physical distance of at least six feet and wearing a mask.
Now, researchers say that doubling up on the last step is key as COVID-19 cases and deaths surge in Georgia and around the nation.
“It has been backed up by research that two masks are, in fact, better than one,” CBS Denver’s medical director Dr. Dave Hnida told CBSN Denver. “Specifically what we’re saying is that two masks may actually equal the protection you would get from N-95 masks, which is considered the best mask there is short of a complete respirator-type unit.”
https://www.ajc.com/life/if-you-hav...FMNxu5i_MMdr-YKbKohs2RvEfwPOvRC8Ys5qWhhlBFlek