Several weeks ago I was in Costco (Seattle area) and they were all out of coffee filters. The next week - the same thing. Then I realized - I bet all of the Chinese in the area are sending them back home to be used as face masks!
I was in Harbor Freight two weeks ago. They had a bunch of dust masks on the shelf. But they are cheap, unrated things. I bought some for some construction dust - they were really bad. (Everyone else is wiped clean). I have what I hope is enough of the masks - but those HF things would be better than nothing perhaps.
I have a colleague who was in Hong Kong during SARS. She says the women there are sewing masks now. Apparently according to her friends there the government is only giving out 2 masks per week.
So while we here think they have all the masks...they don’t. They get 2 per week.
There are patterns available online how to make a mask. Once you understand it is about reducing the viral load you will recognize the limitations of whatever PPE you have.
A properly fitting surgical mask has the ability to reduce the viral load by 80%. A n-95 mask is shown to only reduce the load 90-95%. 10% difference.