AP Photo/ Pat Roque
An N95 face mask.
- Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, healthcare workers must face the reality of a nationwide face-mask shortage that puts them at greater risk for getting the coronavirus while they treat sick people.
- To help with the shortage, community members are donating their own masks to hospitals in need.
- People are creating donation websites, rallying volunteers to deliver the masks, and giving away the face mass they'd typically use for their now-postponed jobs.
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At one New York City hospital, doctors are storing their single-use face masks in paper bags so they can reuse them. At another hospital, masks are reserved for only the most severe cases doctors must tend to. It wasn't always this way.
Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, however, healthcare workers must face the reality of a nationwide face-mask shortage that puts them at greater risk for getting the coronavirus while they treat sick people.
Now, in response, people at home are donating their own face masks in an attempt to lessen the impacts of the shortage.
Two women from San Francisco, California, Liz Klinger and Chloe Alpert, created a website called Mask Match that matches people who have face-mask supplies with hospitals in dire need of them.
"My mom is a nurse, and she told me they weren't being provided masks on her floor, which was obviously kind of concerning. She's older, she's not as healthy as she used to be, and it got to the point that if she stays here she might get a severe case and die," Klinger told SFGate of the moment that sparked her website idea. "And I was hearing through the grapevine that my mom's experience was far from the only experience like that - U.S. healthcare workers across the country need masks."
If a person has surgical or N95 masks, the type that can protect from 95% of airborne particles, they can enter their contact information and details about their supply, and Klinger and Alpert will reach out with a hospital address where they can send the masks. Hospitals and healthcare workers can also use the site to request masks.
Around the country, others are organizing smaller-scale mask donation efforts and sharing their successes on Twitter.
In Washington DC, a group of neighbors were able to donate two bags filled with unused masks to George Washington University's hospital.
"If you just have a handful of supplies, take a moment to reach out to the people around you," Susan Hennessey, the woman who spearheaded the donation effort, wrote on Twitter. "If everyone who has a few extra masks and gloves at home sends them to medical workers who need PPE most, we can help really mitigate the acute crisis until more can be produced.
A "mask crusaders" task force has also been built with chapters in large cities like Chicago, Seattle, New York, and Philadelphia where masks are needed, and they've created an online form for coordinating donations.
In Seattle, Washington, University of Washington astronomy department chair Julianne Dalcanton created a form for community donations and also arranged a task force of volunteers to pick up and deliver the masks to hospitals.
"I had eight masks in my basement," Dalcanton told Buzzfeed. "The idea was to take rapid action where we could get all those masks safely in the places they're needed." Her form noted that people may have masks in their first-aid kits or for painting projects that they could donate.
Workers who typically use masks for their jobs but are currently out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic are donating their supplies as well.
In Michigan, Kristin Johnson, a dentist at Liberty Medical, said she donated the majority of her protective gear supply and kept just enough to tend to her emergency patients, Michigan Radio reported.
In Columbus, Ohio, construction workers are donating their N95 masks to local hospitals, ABC 6 reported.
As coronavirus cases continue to surge in the United States, production isn't able to keep up with the demand for masks in healthcare settings, making these donations more important than ever.
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GW hospital was requesting mask donations so I decided to take over the 6 we had. Inspired by @cfarivar, I texted a few neighbors to ask if they had supplies to donate and they texted others. I just dropped off 60 masks at GW! It took ~40 min of effort. Everyone should try this!!
- Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) March 24, 2020@BrianLehrer masks can be donated via https://t.co/MR3tJm1Jh6 a friend who is a nurse midwife at Woodhull used this and got a small but crucial donation of n95s. It works!
- Angela Conant (@angelaconantime) March 24, 2020Also just got word from @OSUWexMed that Mr. Felix Floor Inc. dropped off some #N95 masks to its emergency department. #COVID19 #coronavirus https://t.co/RK9jISveVd
- Tara Morgan (@tarawsyx6) March 18, 2020