[Lukman]

This is a wrong and dangerous message and it needs to be stopped. Both things are true: a) health workers need masks and b) people should wear masks when they go out.

There are no masks available to the public now. Realistically if you don't already have a mask your only option is to make one, which is not hard. Go to YouTube and find a video. A couple layers of cotton can work and is much better than nothing, at stopping your droplets from spreading if you sneeze or cough.

If you already have a mask wear it when you go out. No health care worker wants your mask. Wear goggles too.

And yes masks help prevent respiratory infection which is why health care workers wear them.

Stop with the "you shouldn't be wearing one" nonsense. It is false and dangerous.

[Wowfunhappy]

I live in New York City. I haven't left my building in weeks, but I can see people on the sidewalk outside of my window, and I see other residents of my building in the lobby when I go (briefly!) to pick up laundry and mail.

Many of them are wearing surgical masks. Not N95 masks, true, but not home-made masks either. I don't know where they're getting the masks, but clearly they have some.

Every time I see this, I honestly kind of want to scream at them.

If you want to wrap a piece of fabric around your nose and mouth, by all means, it certainly can't hurt. But if you have a supply of real masks somewhere, you should donate them.

[SAI_Peregrinus]

I keep a box of surgical masks, since I'm one of the weirdos who wears one when sick even in the US! I've got 3. The box is years old, they're expired, they're not sterile any more, and I'll keep re-using them until they fail (the elastic stretches). As desperate as hospitals are these still aren't donatable.