Why are N95 masks even AVAILABLE to the general public if hospitals are short?

We keep hearing calls to the public to refrain from buying N95 masks because there is a shortage for medical workers. I assume that this means that if the medical worker's workplace has ran out, then they have a chance to buy one out of their own pocket from a random store, but that won't happen if the general public clear out all of the shelves. So the question is, why are they even being distributed for the consumption of the general public?

 

There arent any here. Even the P100 construction and mold filters are all sold out now.

 

There is enormous profit potential by not using any of the available means to allow the USA to protect America from shortages.

Trump could easily could have used legal abilities to buy a few billion masks, but he didn't. Thus insiders like the companies has Trump works with can sell these life saving supplies for enormous prices.

In late January, good N95 disposal masks were already unable to be bought as I went to get my stock for my work in Laboratories. I did accidently saw a stock of them from Ebay and I did an order, which arrived (I thought it may be fraudulebt or junk!) but it came and is reasonable.

But they were triple the price from some I ordered a few months previous. Imagine what hospitals and other users paying right now while nurses and medical personnel reuse masks (which can kill patients and hospital personel) or use makeshift junk while they work? Trash bags and masks made from by trash boxes! Oh, yeah, that is what DEFINES Trump administration and our American industrial giants!

I reuse my masks inappropriatel, but I can use the ones in a areas where I can avoid contamination (I hope). My hatred and disgust is for Trump and his games and fakers are from the nurses and doctors and sick patients who are unnecessarily injured and threatened by the people in power who do this to the regular Americans trying to work or live under Trump and his thieves.

But hey, we can crank out another 50 billion for Space Force uniforms and development! Lets go MAGA!

 

Most N95 masks are intended to filter out dust, smoke, and that kind of thing.

Unless any mask you consider buying specifically indicates that it filters out viruses (VIRUSES), then you're probably wasting your money.

 

So not all N95 masks are the same?

 

N95's are good. They block out the droplets the virus is in. You just can't find them. I have an old one I use for painting. Better than nothing, I guess.

 

The push for wearing masks isn't really to protect you, it's to protect people from you. A poor quality mask won't help you when you inhale, but it will block a lot of junk when you exhale, and if we're all wearing something, that will help a lot.

Now, stop touching your face too. If Americans could do those two things, we would have a good chance at this.

 

What most people don't know, you can get the virus through your EYES, too.
A what ever mask will not protect your EYES.

 

Today FEMA is competing for masks, using its federal powers.

In a recent case reported on the front page of FOX News (and other places) yesterday, the SEIU union for CA medical workers found a source of millions of masks overseas.

That turned out to be a case of fraud.

The reason it was found out early is that the FBI worked to figure out if it was legit and where they were coming into the country.

The reason they did that was that FEMA was planning on STEALING THEM!!!

It's been long reported that FEMA is competing with states and interdicting even when there are solid, signed contracts.

So, states are NOT on their own as the president suggests. The states are in competition with a government that has NO RESPECT even for signed contracts!

 

So how are stores able to get them?

 

There are all kinds of masks for sale. They are NOT all of the quality necessary for protection of health care workers who are treating COVID patients.

States and hospitals are scouring the world for masks they can buy. They ARE coming up short - leading to the construction of significant facilities for cleaning used masks for a second or maybe third reuse. States are sending masks to a facility in the midwest that appears to be able do that.

And, it is a fact that FEMA is competing with those trying to buy masks for healthcare use. In fact, it is using its federal authority to indterdict delivery of masks states and hospitals have purchased.

 

Well then what is the government talking about when they are telling people not to buy them to save them for healthcare workers?

What is FEMA wanting them for if not for "healthcare use?"

 

What does this have to do with why they're available to the general public while hospitals are short?

 

They aren't particularly available to the general public.

But some are extremely lousy, fraudulent, won't be delivered, are used, and otherwise not useable. To the general public, that is.

But to people who have connections to well-connected public officials and families (like presidential son-in-laws), places like 3M for "special sale", military officials, and such, there is plenty.

And alot aren't available even to healthcare professionals. The ones I bought in January were $3 each were normally $1 or less. A hospital ER was mentioning that got ahold of some the previous, but they were 13 times normal price. And no where enough for a single shift.

But Trump has been having FEMA buy them up out from under the hospitals, possibly in order to have Trump to claim we have plenty in case there is a pandemic someday? Who knows...

 

Well then what is the government talking about when they are telling people not to buy them to save them for healthcare workers?

So definitely not in order to redistribute them to more in need areas?

 

~ Many house painters use the N95 mask when working indoors. Furniture manufacturers use them when staining & applying varnish .

 

smoke particles are smaller than the virus. The fit of N95 masks in medical use are tested by whether a scent can be smelt while a mask is being fitted. What a mask is good for is when someone sneezes or coughs in front of you the virus will be transmitted in saliva which will be caught by the mask and even poor quality masks will give some protection. However, be aware that all masks will be building up higher and higher levels of the virus while being worn so extra care must be taken when the mask is removed. It also should not be reused unless properly sanitized

 

You may be wrong about smoke particles being smaller than a virus! Viruses are exceptionally small... here's a website that shows a lot of comparative data: https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/particle-sizes-d_934.html

But I will certainly agree that masks should be sanitized! I spray mine with Lysol and let them dry (otherwise you can't breathe through them. Sometimes, depending on different situations I've worn them in, I also wipe them down with hydrogen peroxide, and then let them dry.

 

What about leaving it around for a couple days? Shouldn't all the viruses be dead?

 

The viruses are small, but the droplets they float around in in the air are pretty big.

 

Well, as far as 'masks' are concerned, anything is surely better than nothing. But when we're dealing with viruses that are so tiny that they cannot even be seen by anything other than electron-microscopes, it is not a good idea for the government to make people believe that merely by wearing a mask designed for dust and smoke that they'll be safe from viruses....

From the link I provided above:
Particle Particle Size
(microns)
Anthrax 1 - 5
Antiperspirant 6 - 10
Asbestos 0.7 - 90
Atmospheric Dust 0.001 - 40
Auto and Car Emission 1 - 150
Bacteria 0.3 - 60
Beach Sand 100 - 10000
Bone Dust 3 - 300
Bromine 0.1 - 0.7
Burning Wood 0.2 - 3
Calcium Zinc Dust 0.7 - 20
Carbon Black Dust 0.2 - 10
Carbon Dioxide 0.00065
Cayenne Pepper 15 - 1000
Cement Dust 3 - 100
Clay, coarse 2 - 4
Clay, medium 1 - 2
Clay, fine 0.5 - 1
Coal Dust 1 - 100
Coal Flue Gas 0.08 - 0.2
Coffee 5 - 400
Combustion 0.01 - 0.1
Combustion-related - motor vehicles, wood burning,
open burning, industrial processes up to 2.5
Copier Toner 0.5 - 15
Corn Starch 0.1 - 0.8
Dot (.) 615
Dust Mites 100 - 300
Eye of a Needle 1230
Face Powder 0.1 - 30
Fertilizer 10 - 1000
Fiberglass Insulation 1 - 1000
Fly Ash 1 - 1000
Gelatin 5 - 90
Ginger 25 - 40
Glass Wool 1000
Grain Dusts 5 - 1000
Gravel, very fine (0.08 inch) 2000
Gravel, fine (0.16 inch) 4000
Gravel, medium (0.3 inch) 8000
Gravel, coarse (0.6 - 1.3 inches) 15000 - 30000
Gravel, very coarse (1.3 - 2.5 inches) 30000 - 65000
Ground Limestone 10 - 1000
Hair 5 - 200
Household dust 0.05 - 100
Human Hair 40 - 300
Human Sneeze 10 - 100
Humidifier 0.9 - 3
Insecticide Dusts 0.5 - 10
Iron Dust 4 - 20
Lead, solder radiator manufacturing - mean value 1.3
Lead, battery and lead powder manufacturing 12 - 22
Lead Dust 0.1 - 0.7
Liquid Droplets 0.5 - 5
Metallurgical Dust 0.1 - 1000
Metallurgical Fumes 0.1 - 1000
Milled Flour, Milled Corn 1 - 100
Mist 70 - 350
Mold 3 - 12
Mold Spores 10 - 30
Mustard 6 - 10
Oil Smoke 0.03 - 1
One inch 25400
Oxygen 0.0005
Paint Pigments 0.1 - 5
Pesticides & Herbicides 0.001
Pet Dander 0.5 - 100
Pollen 10 - 1000
Radioactive Fallout 0.1 - 10
Red Blood Cells 5 - 10
Rosin Smoke 0.01 - 1
Sand, very fine (0.0025 inch) 62
Sand, fine (0.005 inch) 125
Sand, medium (0.01 inch) 250
Sand, coarse (0.02 inch) 500
Sand, very coarse (0.02 inch) 500
Saw Dust 30 - 600
Sea Salt 0.035 - 0.5
Silt, coarse (0.0015) 37
Silt, medium (0.0006 - 0.0012 inche) 16 - 30
Silt, fine 8 - 13
Silt, very fine 4 - 8
Skin flakes 0.5 - 10
Smoke from Natural Materials 0.01 - 0.1
Smoke from Synthetic Materials 1 - 50
Smoldering or Flaming Cooking Oil 0.03 - 0.9
Spanish Moss Pollen 150 - 750
Spider web 2 - 3
Spores from plants 3 - 100
Starches 3 - 100
Sugars 0.0008 - 0.005
Talcum Dust 0.5 - 50
Tea Dust 8 - 300
Textile Dust 6 - 20
Textile Fibers 10 - 1000
Tobacco Smoke 0.01 - 4
Typical Atmospheric Dust 0.001 to 30
Viruses 0.005 - 0.3
Yeast Cells 1 - 50

 

True but singular Coronavirus are not really a problem. It becomes a problem when in concentrated form such as in sneezes and coughs which contain the virus in saliva and in this state it is much larger (10-100 microns as per your link) and even a cheap mask will reduce the risk of catching the disease from coughs and sneezes

 

After about 3 days the virus should be dead.

 

That is the danger. Many people think that if I wear a mask I am now safe. Many don't realise that a mask is a good breeding ground for the virus and without adequate training won't know how to take off a mask and will often reuse one without proper sanitizing and because of laziness or to save money

edit breeding ground is not the right words to use but I hope it is understood what I mean

 

I agree with you completely! But, because I have a small number of what are called "surgical masks", I spray them with Lysol and wipe them occasionally with hydrogen peroxide in order to 'recycle' them.

And, I suppose it goes without saying that even before I began wearing the masks, I had already begun wearing nitrile gloves -- 5 mil. I've got a couple of 100-count boxes of those, cheap, at Harbor Freight, so I don't recycle them. I started wearing the gloves on all trips to stores way back at the end of January. I'm not 'psychic', but I had a fairly good idea of what appeared to be coming... and I don't like what's coming next, either.... Hang tough!

"Lock your doors, load your weapons, and mind your own damned business!"