Found some for under $2 for 50. Still 3 ply.
I think it’s safe to say that the vast majority of people wearing the masks that look like that are wearing 3 plies.
The chart suggests that the “paper masks” are only available in China, doesn’t it? Or at least not in the US given it has no US values unlike the other two masks it’s compared to.
I’ve gone through a couple of boxes of these:
New York Times - One in 5,000: The real chances of a breakthrough infection.
Yes, Delta has increased the chances of getting Covid for almost everyone. But if you’re vaccinated, a Covid infection is still uncommon, and those high viral loads are not as worrisome as they initially sounded.
How small are the chances of the average vaccinated American contracting Covid? Probably about one in 5,000 per day, and even lower for people who take precautions or live in a highly vaccinated community.
The chances are surely higher in the places with the worst Covid outbreaks, like the Southeast. And in places with many fewer cases — like the Northeast, as well as the Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco areas — the chances are lower, probably less than 1 in 10,000. That’s what the Seattle data shows, for example. (These numbers don’t include undiagnosed cases, which are often so mild that people do not notice them and do not pass the virus to anyone else.)
Here’s one way to think about a one-in-10,000 daily chance: It would take more than three months for the combined risk to reach just 1 percent.
All the states but eight are in various stages of green today, indicating that the rates of new COVID case reported 9on a 7-day average) are decreasing.
Which is good, except that some states are reporting new record highs
West Virginia (1629)
South Carolina (5811)
…and Florida doesn’t make the list of increasing cases, I’m sure, only because of its weekly reporting of cases, rather than daily. The number as of September 6 (yesterday) is 32,300
There’s something odd going on in the states that had just eported record highs – this morning their rates have plummeted to outrageously low values. I suspect something odd with the reporting or calculating algorithm, because there’s no way that the numbers of cases in Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming should abruptly and discontinuously dropped. Louisiana’s fall took much more time, but even its latest data point is a heluva lot lower than any sort of smooth curve would indicate.
Today is labor day. I suspect reporting irregularities.
Labor Day effect.
At least here in Massachusetts, the reported numbers are usually extra high on Monday as the sat sun numbers get lumped in with Monday. Now with Labor Day, MA is reporting ‘zero’ on a Monday so you get the double the effect and a big drop in the 7 day average as today’s average is only counting 4 real days instead of 7.
This author argues that the health system is not on the verge of collapse; it has already collapsed.
The American health system I work in has featured limited personal protective equipment, oxygen shortages, and the construction of field hospitals in convention centers and parking garages. Last winter, many hospitals across the country instituted crisis standards of care, forced to ration health services based on criteria that few people envisioned would be used outside of a mass casualty event, like a terrorist attack. Today, hospitals are full in much of the country, with patients requiring an ICU being airlifted thousands of miles in search of a staffed bed. These are not features of a health system that is approaching failure. These are features of a health care system that has broken down spectacularly, forcing doctors and patients to climb through the rubble looking for help.
More evidence: Idaho has started rationing health care to those most likely to survive.
The move allows hospitals to allot scarce resources like intensive care unit rooms to patients most likely to survive. Other patients will still receive care, but they may be placed in hospital classrooms or conference rooms rather than traditional hospital rooms or go without some life-saving medical equipment.
Florida has been offering both Pfizer and Moderna boosters for weeks now.
~Max
222,770,512 total cases
4,600,060 dead
199,293,856 recovered
In the US:
41,206,672 total cases
669,022 dead
31,522,263 recovered
Yesterday’s Two days ago’s numbers for comparison*:
*Apparently I took Labor Day off. 
Anecdotally, i know if a large number of older people in my state who have gotten third shots, and the odds that they are all immune compromised is zero.
When i made an appointment for my mom (who is immune compromised) i had to click that box, but was never asked for anything like documentation. And when i wrote to her doctor, saying I’d had to schedule most of a week in the future, was he concerned, he said he wasn’t, but pointed me to a walk-in clinic that would accept her even if i couldn’t find any of her initial paperwork. (She never got the typical “vaccine card”.)
What’s “older”? It seems as though people over 80 are considered immune compromised simply for having an elderly immune system.
My 85 yr old Dad tried to get a booster at Walgreen’s and they asked him if he was immunocompromised. He said “no” and they turned him away. I was like, “Dad, you’re 85 years old with cardiac issues. You’re immunocompromised!” He said that they specified the conditions like lupus, cancer patient, etc. so he felt like he’d be lying. 
Tell him he’s covered by the ‘etc.’
CDC Guidelines are listed here:
Age alone is not listed, but if one’s doctor agreed that they were at least moderately immunocompromised, that would cover it, I guess.
It seems like there’s been some confusion about what boosters are available for. Boosters for immunocompromised are allowed now, with an mRNA vaccine (either one). Sometime later in the fall, a third dose of Pfizer will likely be approved/recommended for those who got the Pfizer vaccine 6 months* earlier. But people are just heading out to pharmacies and getting their third dose by checking the box without actually being at least moderately immunocompromised.
*I think. It may be 8 months?
It’s actually pretty complicated. I’m on Prednisone, 20 mg daily, for a Polymyalgia Rheumatica flare up. I can find authoritative sources that say I’m on an immunosuppressive dose of medication. Others say no, it would take 40 mg per day before I’d be considered immunosuppressed.
I finally gave up and decided I was immunosuppressed. So long as I attest to that, the pharmacy was happy to schedule me.
over 70, still doing regular exercise
And no, the guidelines don’t mention age, although that would seem reasonable.
You qualify:
COVID-19 Vaccine Indications for Patients Who Are Immunocompromised | CDC
Some of the conditions and treatments that result in immunosuppression include, but are not limited to, the following:
…
- Active treatment with high-dose corticosteroids (i.e., ≥20 mg prednisone or equivalent per day when administered for ≥2 weeks),
…
My mom takes the equivalent of 15mg prednisone, plus another immune suppressant, and her doctor told me to get her the third shot. So there is some wiggle room for interpretation.
Scheduled for Friday! Hope I feel lousy Saturday. 