COVID - How to protect ourselves

[Kurt]

I had to go to the post office today. It was my first time out in weeks. All customers were wearing masks or some type of face covering including me.

It was amazing how many times I caught myself making mistakes. First, I put my hand on the counter where the pens and forms are to lean while I was standing in line. Then when I got up to the window where the clerk is, I sat my keys on that counter. I took my squirt bottle of h2o2 so I did a quick spray as soon as I got back to the car...but still.

When I got home I put my mask in the oven at 210 f for 30 minutes, more than enough to kill COVID. My mask is disposable but I added my own elastic to make it tighter and wanted to reuse the elastic. It seems the metal strip uses some type of heat gun glue because the strip fell off from the heat. Not a big deal because I'm throwing it away anyway but wanted to disinfect it before removing my own elastic.

I do caution people from using heat on things to kill COVID. As we know, heat makes things expand. This includes the spaces between things, which is why heating a jar lid or nut and bolt helps loosen them. I'm concerned that heat may increase the size of the holes in masks and don't know if they will shrink when they cool. However, in my exact situation where I am only concerned with the elastic strap it should be good. Something to think about.