A medical supply company I buy from almost cancelled my tiny order for masks I had place with them around the 20th of January. I placed my order just hours before all sales of masks were halted. A small business concern I know of, did have their order completely cancelled. All masks sales and production were diverted to somebodies, probably some government agency.
And I bet this agency is still sitting on millions and millions of masks in warehouses, most going unused when the general public could have used them to save lives. I gave away the ones I had ordered to over a score of people in multiple families.
Unused masks will eventually be destroyed when some standard expiration date is exceed (by regulation). This is the usual way our government does things. And if expired items are not destroyed, they'll be auctioned off for penny's on the dollar (as scrap paper perhaps). Whoever buys them at auction, will rebox them with new expiration dates and sell them right back to the same government agencies, or to medical supply companies.
Other than that, I agree. Our HCSs must have priority - but then perhaps a more reusable mask with disposable filters might better suit their needs for the purpose of caring for victims of contagious diseases.
Just my two cents of course - but the whole mask issue, especially the claim by our "experts" that they aren't effective, infuriates me.
“infuriates me”
As it does every thinking person.
Let me add my lamentation.