Masks

April 2, 2020

Don’t wear one. It won’t protect you from COVID-19. Wear one. It’ll protect others from your germs. But not an N-95! That would protect you. But we’re short on those and need all of them for frontline med staff. So use a cloth mask. Or a bandana. Whatever.

The advice from on high has been somewhat confusing, to say the least. As recently as a few days ago the U.S. Surgeon General was tweeting:

He was referencing the scarce N-95s that ER and EMS personnel need to do their jobs. But that wasn’t exactly clear unless you’d been following this issue. Yesterday California went on record as being pro-mask, sort of (but not N-95s!).

And today in NYC this happened:

And at the White House today President Trump hinted that a mask announcement was forthcoming adding, “I don’t think they’ll be mandatory because some people don’t want to do that.” Like his friend Jim maybe?

This afternoon up here masks were noticeably more noticeable than they were a week ago, but most people remained barefaced. We spent a little time chatting up some local máscara wearers.

Leon was sporting a stylish blue and white cloth model that he’d made himself. He has a background as a tailor and wants to make lots of these and sell them to the government. He showed us some more designs on his phone. They all featured elastic bands that you loop behind your ears and attractive fabrics. Easy on, easy off. Very nice. He’s been a masked man for 2 weeks already.

Connie works in healthcare and spoke to us from behind a pink surgical mask while waiting for the light to change on Dykeman Street. 3 weeks so far for her.