Quote:
Originally Posted by Spoons
Even regular alcohol wipes are out in some places. I’m on a few chronic illness FB groups and people who need them to clean their skin for medication injections can’t. There’s a shortage of masks so medical professionals are screwed. I even saw a post where they’re getting dust masks from like Home Depot and stuff so construction workers etc can’t get them. I think when the media does talk about it they take the spin of it being a horrible catastrophe type thing.
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I'll just add onto this.
My mom has a friend on FB whose husband is a painter. He can't get refill cartridges for his respirator because they are sold out everywhere, including Amazon. He needs them to do his job painting. And is now out of work for his own safety due to not being able to wear his respirator.
I'm a member of a volunteer fire department, and when I last spoke to my EMS director a MONTH ago. All of our suppliers for N-95s are out till June, and this was when the US was just getting the first cases. I am pretty sure the date has moved, but I won't know till I talk to him on Monday for our monthly meeting. And I believe we use same suppliers as hospitals. And for health care workers, we don't ONLY have this virus to worry about, there are so many other more contagious airborne virus that now we don't have masks to protect ourselves?
And to top it off, the CDC and the US Surgeon General spoke this week about how a mask is not as effective as people think. It is actually MORE protective to put them on someone who is sick, than someone who is not sick.
I also went to the grocery store today with my mom. One store is completely sold out of: Gloves, face masks, toilet paper, anything containing bleach, running very low on tissues, all the antibacterial hand soap is sold out (I love how people are thinking "Yeah! Antibacterial soap will kill... a virus..." and all of the other soaps are still in stock, which work JUST as well for this) I didn't even look at hand sanitizer because at this point I was just tired.
Am I worried? Nah. Just frustrated.