Res Ipsa wrote:A couple of weeks ago, I had to go into an apartment full of rotting food and dog crap. The manager gave us masks — N95 respiratory masks. The articles on them are right — they are hard as hell to put on and wear properly. If you don’t manage to get and maintain a snug seal all the way around, you might as well not wear one. And if you do get it on properly, it feels like you’re suffocating. And, I believe, they are single use.
The people who need them are doctors and nurses who are attending to patients in isolation. They’re in short supply, and the folks who went around buying up masks (and selling them for a ridiculous price) are, essentially, killing the health care workers who we’re relying on to get us through this.
So, yeah. Depressing.
I bolded part of your post I'm in full agreement with.
Regarding the N95 let's say you didn't have any prepper type stuff going on. So you go on over to Amazon and you find this:
Hello, Do you sell in a bulk? We need thousands of masks.
Answer:If you in need of 3M Mask, please contact Antmodity. They have 10,000 units available at the moment.
https://www.antmodity.com/product/3m-pa ... 0-ea-case/
By Eric on February 25, 2020
Hi Natalya, sorry we currently only have the last few boxes in stock as many of the 3M masks are on backorder. Is there a specific model you are looking for?
By Loveology SELLER on February 3, 2020So yeah. The medical masks I was referring to in an earlier post are the type that the general public would be after, not knowing that the N95 is right for the job. The majority of those blue masks are manufactured in--->China. Where my guess is the manufacturing plants are shut down. And even if they weren't shut down, it's a loooong wait to receive shipments from China to start with.
I guess China could make hand over fist on medical equipment right now if only they weren't so impaired by the outbreak.
I tend to think that the novel coronavirus is not that bad. But, this just goes to show you how unprepared we really are between people hoarding equipment, people selling at outrageous prices, people unprepared to come in contact with those exposed to the novel coronavirus (as mentioned in two earlier posts) and even if we wanted to try the blue masks--those are out of stock with refill stock most likely never getting into the country.
I still didn't buy my plane tickets. "Go to the beach", she said. "It'll be great", she said.
I seriously don't know which way to move on flying in April. I know that's selfish first-world problems and I certainly don't mean to minimize the risk older folks and immunocompromised folks are facing but still, I don't know what to do.
A warm beach and a patch of sun would've been so nice.
Probably not happening when I thought it would. I feel like crap about this--all of it.
