Even in the age of social distancing, I need to take minor risks like picking up food from the grocery store. It’s been 10 days since my last trip into NYC, so I think these little local trips are my biggest risk. But everywhere I go, I see people with masks. Where are they getting them? Does anyone have a connect? I feel like people sneer at me because I’m not wearing one.
Some bought early before they ran out. Some might have had a small stash for other uses. And some are making their own – I sewed up one to go to the grocery store in, in fifteen minutes, they are very simple to make.
I had some painters dust masks in my toolbox that I bought years ago that I use.
I feel like the Opposite of op, I feel people sneer because I do use one. But supposedly it’s one of the better ways to prevent asymptomatic people from spreading the disease.
My roommate bought masks when he got the flu in January and has gloves because he gets them for medical purposes. I guess for diabetes? I don’t watch him do his blood tests/injections so I have no idea if he uses them regularly but he had a few boxes.
I had a mask when I went to the store yesterday. I felt weird though because nobody else was wearing them and people were looking at me like they were worried I might have the virus. I honestly wore the mask because I have a really bad habit of face touching and hair fiddling and I’m constantly touching my glasses when I’m nervous. The mask was a good reminder. I was going to wear the gloves but I ripped one putting it on and assumed they must be old or I’m just really aggressive.
Logically, for all masks to be sold out, somebody had to have been buying them. You are seeing the somebodies.
They could be regular surgical masks, not N95. Those are easier to obtain and often come in large quantities.
I bought a pack of three N95 rated masks a few years ago to use with a paint sprayer indoors. And then two years ago when wildfires smoked out the entire state, I bought a box for my wife.
I can’t find any of them.
Tonight, we just found two N95 masks in our painting supplies as we were preparing to paint during our home time. I do pottery and a lot of potters have masks to wear when they prepare glazes. Woodworkers, jewelry makers, glass blowers often have a few masks for protection stashed away somewhere.
I saw a box in a corner store I randomly went into to buy a few food necessities. Who the hell knows where they came from.
There remains an enormous stigma here to a person wearing them; you’re expected to donate anything you have to the hospitals. This is, clearly, a terrible thing; it would significantly reduce infection rates if everyone wore the things. The government should be moving heaven and earth to have billions made.
I had a partial box left from when I had a broken jaw and had to have surgery. Mostly because I looked horrible during recovery.
Big Wrek has some from painting and tractor work. I believe his are the N95 type.
IMHO, since masks are effective in preventing the spread of the disease but not so much as defensive devices, when I do have to go out it’s my hands I worry about. From now on I’m either going to carry hand sanitizer with me in the car or wear latex gloves when I shop. I’ve always kept a box of latex gloves around because they’re useful when dealing with any form of stuff that is filthy or staining. Just the other day someone very responsibly picked up their dog shit from the green space between the sidewalk and the curb in front of my house, and then left the plastic bag of dog shit in the same place. A latex glove was very handy for picking that up and throwing in the garbage bag the next garbage day, along with the glove itself. In these times I’d no longer feel comfortable grasping the handle of a shopping cart without those gloves. I’ve noticed that even in this warmish weather many people out shopping are still wearing winter gloves.
I know some people who had to buy some when they had a child born very premature. A condition of sending him home, still on breathing equipment and monitors, was that anyone with a temp, or who felt a tiny bit of a cold coming on, or who was a child with a runny nose who was around him, had to wear one in the house until the baby was off the breathing equipment AND had gained a certain amount of weight (I don’t remember how much) AND had past the date that he would have been born.
His parents were both medical professionals who could look after him in an isolette at home, basically, and he was ready to go from preemie formula supplemented with a little breastmilk to full-time breastmilk, and his mother wanted to try to nurse him, so the doctors discharged him. He made it, FWIW, and is a skinny, but boisterous 4-yr-old.
Anyway, they had some of these masks still, and the hospital where the father works eagerly snapped up their two unopened boxes, but they had an opened one about a 3rd full, which the hospital said they couldn’t take because of possible dust or mold contamination-- they were probably OK, though, and if someone in their family became ill, that person could wear one while recuperating at home.
OP, sneer right back. Those masks offer very little protection. They’re better than nothing but not nearly good enough. And because surgical masks are in such short supply, everyone wearing a paper or homemade cloth mask is not only not fully shielding themselves and others but is depriving those docs and nurses on the front lines.
N95 masks are desperately needed, so much so that some hospitals are taking the homemade masks. They’re not much protection, but when you have nothing, you grasp at straws.
Here in Taiwan, they did move heaven and earth to rapidly increase the production capacity so everyone can get surgical masks, although they are still being rationed now. I posted the numbers in the breaking news thread, but I believe the capacity is 15 million per day for a population of 23 million.
N95 are not available for general consumption. My wife and I are both required to wear surgical masks at work, as are many people.
N95 masks are no better than surgical masks unless they are properly sized, fit tested and worn correctly. Until we can get supplies up please leave the N95 masks for the healthcare providers who desperately need them. Hopefully, everyone will be able to get surgical masks soon, although I still can’t get any more for my practice and we are saving them for patients who are febrile or coughing and MUST be seen.
I have a 3-pak of N95s for use when sanding and so forth. I think a lot of people have a few hanging around the house.
I’m confused about what you’re saying here - sounds like you’re saying there is something wrong with wearing homemade masks?
My local Indian takeaway also delivers to the door (jolly useful in this crisis.)
I noticed that the drivers are wearing masks (they leave the food on the doorstep, ring the bell, then step back for payment, so the mask is just a precaution.)
Anyway when I ordered my latest takeaway (Chicken Tikka Rogan, boiled rice, Bombay Aloo with mushroom 
), I asked if they had any masks for sale. They did indeed.
So my answer to the OP is:
- from an Indian takeaway!
One of the reasons SKorea and Japan managed well was a culture of wearing masks. And yes I recognize these are not top grade type masks that offer 100% protection from catching the virus.
The thing is, the west kinda has it backwards. What they see is bunches of paranoid people wearing masks for protection, and not even the right masks! OMG!
But, in reality, in a culture where people wear masks, they are very effectively lowering transmission rates by protecting everyone else from themselves, since you can be infecting people for a week before you have any symptoms. If you’d had a mask on during that time, much less spread!
So, anywhere lots of people wear masks, even if they are mistakenly thinking it’s protecting ‘them’, they are very effectively lowering transmission to others.
Even before this event, when westerners would see Asian crowd scenes, always seeing some with masks on, first thought is they are worried about catching something. And that could be, but more likely that person has a cough and is not wanting to spread it to coworkers and friends, commuters etc.
You can get them on sites like Banggoodbut I am not sure of the quality of them. I’ve gotten other things there, like computer parts that have been fine, but it’d be too easy to slap an n95 label on a regular mask.
I think you’re misunderstanding the value of masks. There’s growing evidence that a mask - any mask - offers some protection. But if everyone is wearing a mask, that has a significant impact on the spread of any virus, including COVID-19. The primary mode of transmission is through air droplets, particularly larger ones. Masks can reduce the chance of spreading them and getting them. Any reduction has value.
The CDC and public health officials have failed tremendously in not emphasizing, and in some cases actually discouraging, the use of masks. It’s a monumental failure, and it’s inexplicable given the fact that these are the experts we trust with supporting public health efforts. If we want to discourage the hoarding of N-95 and surgical masks, that’s fine - I get that. But to discourage consumption and use of masks is catastrophically stupid.
OP, if you can’t find a mask, just make your own. No, it won’t guarantee you won’t get the virus. You still need to practice social distancing (btw, six feet is the absolute minimum and you might be better off standing 15-20 feet apart if possible) and wash your hands with soap for 20 seconds whenever you touch something outside your home that someone else might have touched (including packages).
I had some left over from painting, and a few with eye shields above the mask from Halloween.