Earlier this year, with N95 respirators in short supply, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued emergency authorizations for Chinese-made KN95 respirators. New manufacturers soon flooded the market, unfortunately with often-defective products that the FDA signed off on anyway. Now, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal (archive link), states that trusted
Welcome to the newly revamped Key Developments, now twice weekly and with non-COVID news. Right now, it’s actually still just COVID news, but we’ll be slowly morphing it into something broader as we go. There are over 18.7 million global cases. Cases are growing globally by about 1.5 million per week. There have been over
The past ten days have brought a mix of good and bad news for the United States and COVID-19. On the good side, the moving average of new COVID-19 cases in the USA has flattened after over a month of rapid growth. New cases have even fallen by about 3.4% in recent days. The bad
For the past two years I’ve been wondering if beeswax wraps were worth adding to my home preps. They’re reusable and environmentally friendly, which made me wonder if they lasted long and performed well enough to be a prepper’s alternative to standard cling wrap for food preservation. Instead of single-use plastic, beeswax wraps are pieces
If you’re a seasoned prepper, you likely already have stockpiles of certain things: food, water, ammunition, medical supplies, etc. We’ve linked to the guides for each category, but you can also take a look at the Emergency preparedness checklist: Prepping for beginners if you’re just looking to get started. In this post, I’d like to direct your
Wondering when it’ll be safe to plan or attend a gathering again? Georgia Tech and Applied Bioinformatics Laboratory have created a map that lets you calculate the odds of coming in contact with someone who has COVID-19. How to use the map The site offers several different risk-estimation tools, but we’ll focus on the map
Welcome to the newly revamped Key Developments, now twice weekly and with non-COVID news. Right now, it’s actually still mainly COVID news, but we’ll be slowly morphing it into something broader as we go. World events Many are worried about the flooding that threatens the Three Gorges Dam in China. This dam is one of
Publisher Simon and Schuster would like you to believe that Bunker: Building for the End Times is a study in the most extreme forms of prepping. The book’s jacket promises it will be “chilling” and “eerily prescient.” The cover itself pictures a set of concrete steps that open on a possibly-post-apocalyptic world. When Simon and Schuster
Here’s a strange story from Utah. A woman got a mysterious package in the mail from China. According to the box, it had earrings in it. She opened it, and found the box to be full of baggies of seeds—not earrings at all. And she didn’t order seeds. What’s up with that? And who sent
Welcome to the newly revamped Key Developments, now twice weekly and with non-COVID news. Right now, it’s actually still just COVID news, but we’ll be slowly morphing it into something broader as we go. The world has over 15.6 million cases. The rate of global case growth continues to increase. There have been over 635,000
The COVID-19 pandemic has ground America’s already overloaded legal system to a halt, and cases are piling up while judges stay home. Lawyers we spoke with say the resulting backlogs will likely take years to work their way through the courts after the pandemic ends. What this means for you: possible longer jail stays if
Hand sanitizer has been in short supply this year. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, hand sanitizer was one of the first items to face shortages. That’s led to a swarm of new vendors cranking out hand sanitizer to meet demand. While you probably still can’t find recognizable brands like Purell and Germ-X, you can
Welcome to the newly revamped Key Developments, now twice weekly and with non-COVID news. Right now, it’s actually still just COVID news, but we’ll be slowly morphing it into something broader as we go. There are over 13.4 million global cases. Cases have grown by over 1.6 million in the last week. There have been
Broward County, FL has been hit hard by COVID-19. Cases are growing and ICU capacity is shrinking. So last Thursday, the county released a new emergency order. The order limits gatherings to no more than 10 people, mandates masks, and establishes a nightly curfew. But one section of the emergency order has turned heads: could
You’re welcome to ship a package in the United States right now, but it might not actually arrive at its destination. FedEx and UPS have suspended money-back guarantees. FedEx, UPS, and the USPS have loosened signature requirements, announced shipping delays, and have even canceled some shipping routes. Here’s what you need to know: If you’re
