Katinko

One of the most unglamorous things you can have in your medicine chest is something you may consider investing in is Katinko.

To those who don't know, Katinko is one of those counter-irritant products full of menthol and camphor that is popular in the Philippines, like Tigerbalm and Icy Hot for muscle pain. But this is different. Special.

The key difference is that this is a spray. AN AEROSOL SPRAY.

While as effective as its sister products, this is a must buy for me for the same reason I stopped using it for muscle pain: the spray is so fine that it burns the lungs. full stop. It doesn't matter if you hold your breath, or spray and run. It will find you, and it will hurt you. It lingers in the air waiting for you to inhale.

And that's what makes it so necessary for me now. This spray can theoretically emulate how aerosols spray and linger in the air... like COVID infected air. I've found this super useful as a predeparture mask check. If this makes me suffer, then there's something wrong with my mask and I need to toggle it somehow.

I wish I didn't need it. But I do. So I'll continue buying this hellfire until the pandemic ends.

May 2021 be a lot better than 2020.