“However, the CDC says that masks are not effective in any way (as well as a whole bunch of other “reasons” I shouldn’t protect you and you shouldn’t protect me. :-(”
Well, if we had the masks, everybody should be wearing them all the time. But we don’t have the masks because a lot of them aren’t made here and the countries that do make them banned exports, reserving them for their domestic needs.
So reserving the masks to health care workers, since they are the ones who are most frequently exposed to everything and therefore the most likely vector for people in the hospital to catch anything makes sense. You hose down the hotspots.
Were it up to me I’d have everybody in masks when in public, no exceptions. To do that, we’d have to have the masks.
Has anyone anywhere estimated what total US mask production can be in a week? Two weeks? A month?
Hand sanitizer is also a “no findee” locally at present. But I just ordered extra Palmolive liquid dishwashing soap (the std. strength green stuff) online, from Wally World - works great as hand soap without drying hands too much. I hope it shows up, as it went out of stock a few hours after I placed the order... (90 oz. for $4.42, free shipping if part of a $35 order.)
I also picked up (locally) some bacteria and virus killing wipes. Those things really dry out my hands...
Someone on FR was basically minimizing the problem & offering extra masks they had. Well, dang it, I have some sort of respiratory bug that’s in my lungs now - probably neither COVID-19 or flu, but I have my 89 y/o Mom to take care of part of the time, and although the closest COVID-19 infection reported is 100 miles away, no one around here I can find has had masks in stock for a month. So, if that person still has extras and wants to PM me...