Arizona

selling boxes of surgical masks. They cost more than the ones I bought at the other store. I still have about 3/4 left of a box of 50, plus several inividual packages of 5 to a package. I have several cloth masks that I have accumulated over the months. When sanitizer and 70% alcohol started reappearing on shelves after they were scarce, I stocked up on them.

So I am ok for now. But I am concerned about what will happen if mutated variants of the virus spread more widely within the US. The Brazilian and South African strains have been found in a few places in the US. Americans in India want to come home. Remember when American exchange students returned from Italy last year during a peak of Italian infections? They were supposed to quarantine on their campuses, but sneaked out to visit friends. American business people from Europe and China returned. And then all hell broke out in NYC and other locations.

I hope we don't see a repeat of that, but it could happen if people get too lax now. The US vaccination rate is good so far compared to other countries, but some virus mutations are able to slip by the immune systens of vaccinated people.

In the 1918 flu pandemic, people let their guard down too soon when cases started falling, and then new waves followed, probably mutations, but we weren't able to track and identify mutations back then.