[q_queue]

It's been pointed out to me that one should check with local facilities before setting off on this project, to verify that they in fact want any. My partner is a clothing designer and gets this forwarded to her a couple of times a day, and she did some research and found that local facilities were not requesting or accepting homemade masks and the nearest ones that were were many hours drive away and required for some reason in-person dropoffs, in addition to having "enough for now."

[kerkeslager]

This comment is a typical HN anecdata focusing on one small issue while ignoring the many ways this is useful.

1. Mailing facemasks to where they're needed is one of the few good uses of the mail system right now. There's absolutely no reason this has to be a local effort. I'm sure there's a hospital somewhere that would accept these.

2. Ideally, there would be enough facemasks for everyone to wear a facemask. Prioritizing healthcare workers is a smart move right now, but even if there aren't healthcare facilities accepting these, there's no downside to giving masks to the general populace.

3. Building on #2, if we can get face masks to people, that might prevent people from buying up all the medical-grade masks that are in short supply right now.

[q_queue]

If you're sure, please suggest a medical facility currently willing to accept homemade masks via USPS.

[kerkeslager]

I know of one place near me, but if I go posting that all over the internet, they'll be inundated and stop accepting them. It's better that people do their own legwork to keep this decentralized. An alternative would be for someone to do the legwork of calling a lot of hospitals and create a comprehensive list of where masks are needed, which is something I'd be totally into if I weren't inundated with work right now.