[101404]

I lived in East Asia for many years, and never understand why people here in Europe don't wear masks. Not even now. Really weird.

[TeMPOraL]

> Not even now.

Simple: there isn't enough of them around for everyone to wear. There never was.

[stubish]

Most masks in Asia are simple cloth. You can make them yourself. Not as good as a N95, but they cut down smog and infection risk and are affordable. Even just a scarf helps if you insist on being fashion conscious. Yet nobody wears them, because we have a shortage of ones good enough to be worn in infection wards.

[lm28469]

> they cut down smog

Simple cloth masks Asians wear all the time don't do such thing. Pollutants go straight through these masks.

[foxyv]

They do reduce large particulates but you are right, they do nothing for NO2, CO, and Hydrocarbons.

[101404]

That's another thing: I am pretty shocked that our government doesn't have emergency reserves not even for these kind of simple items.

[fma]

We do, but it's not enough. National Strategic Stockpile has seomthing like tens of millions of masks. I believe need over 1 billion.

It wasn't replenished after H1N1. Hard to convince politicians to buy things we may or may not use.

[odiroot]

I blame the foolish need for unrestricted individualism. We're much more of a "me" culture.