Amazon Blocks Sale of N95 Masks To the Public, Begins Offering Supplies To Hospitals (cnbc.com) 108
Amazon is no longer offering N95 masks to the general public, as it prioritizes the delivery of essential supplies to hospitals, government agencies and other groups amid the coronavirus outbreak. From a report: Earlier this week, the company rolled out a new section of its website dedicated to COVID-19 related supplies. There, any U.S.-accredited hospital or state or federal agency can fill out a form to access necessary items like N95 masks, surgical masks, facial shields, surgical gowns, surgical gloves and large-volume sanitizers. The site states it is not accepting requests from the general public, noting: "We are not accepting requests from individuals or non-qualified organizations at this time." Amazon also noted it will not make a profit from the orders.
No evidence of human-to-human transmission (Score:2, Insightful)
Look, the WHO said there was no evidence [twitter.com] of human-to-human transmission! You trust the World Health Organization, don't you?
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That was on January 14, *explicitly* forwarding the information provided by the Chinese authorities.
What would *you* have done with that information, back then?
Stocked up on tp, hand sanitizer and n95 masks? Maybe a Scotts Air Pack...
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Can someone explain why the fuck people are hoarding the tp?
The virus causes a cough, not diarrhea.
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Actually diarrhea is listed as a potential symptom, but still the hoarders are still terrible.
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Listicles (Score:1)
Re:Listicles (Score:4, Insightful)
https://www.snopes.com/fact-ch... [snopes.com]
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Yup, I didn't get all I should have last time. I normally get an 18 or 14 pack and it lasts forever. But when I did go to buy more when I was down to the last roll, the large sizes were out but I could get a 9 pack. So I think I should get more because the shelter-in-place will go another month. I don't strictly need anymore. But... if I wait until I need it and it's out then it's a problem.
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Commercial grade stuff is basically sandpaper that has been rejected because it damages the wood too much.
Re: Listicles (Score:1)
...just in time to cause the runs.
Cha ching.
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Can someone explain why the fuck people are hoarding the tp?
I imagine people thought they wouldn't be able (or want) to go back to the grocery store as they might get closed or people quarantined. Obviously, grocery stores are an "essential" business and will be allowed to remain open.
As always, keep your distance, wash your hand and don't lick the ice cream [usatoday.com]. (not a euphemism).
Re: No evidence of human-to-human transmission (Score:1)
wash your hand
No, the other one.
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wash your hand
No, the other one.
I only wash one hand at a time 'cause I like the challenge. Same with clapping. :-)
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Obviously, grocery stores are an "essential" business and will be allowed to remain open.
Looking at only a single part of an entire system...
Someone has to go to work to cut down the lumber.
Someone has to go to work to ship the limber to a mill.
Someone has to go to work to produce wood pulp.
Someone has to go to work to ship wood pulp to a paper manufacturer.
Someone has to go to work to manufacture the toilette paper.
Someone has to go to work to ship the toilette paper to the distributors.
Someone has to go to work to organize distribution to stores.
Someone has to go to work to ship to
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Because in a panic, everybody rushes to buy the necessities. If you didn't buy a 24-roll pack (or however much you need for 2 months) when this started, you right now have nothing to wipe with. Besides toilet paper, most stores are also missing flour, bread, milk, meat, many soups, stocks and broths. The only thing you can find right now is fresh produce and vegan stuff which nobody buys.
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Wow! You Americans really are all batshit crazy!
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Yep, now sick AND crazy, its a wild ride! Just look at YouTube
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Except, you know, vegans.
Aside from toilet paper, I haven't seen empty shelves for things I usually buy.
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Sardine and anchovy aisles are fully-stocked. And saltines too, perfect snack.
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Re:No evidence of human-to-human transmission (Score:4, Insightful)
Plenty of gluten free items on the shelf too. Funny how everyones allergy was cured by this...
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"Plenty of gluten free items on the shelf too. Funny how everyones allergy was cured by this..."
No. It means those people are not prepper-hoarders, they are normal.
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And regular, I'll bet they're not the ones buying all the TP
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"Who uses up a toilet paper roll in two and a half days?"
If you have no rolling papers, it goes fast.
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Can someone explain why the fuck people are hoarding the tp?
1. People are trying to self-quarantine and want to go out less, so they decide to stock up on day-to-day supplies. One of those supplies is TP.
2. As TP starts to thin out on the shelves, people notice, so they buy even more "just in case".
3. The media runs stories about the Great Toilet Paper Panic, causing even more people to rush out to buy.
Each individual is acting rationally, but that does not lead to rational group behavior.
The solution is to prepare ahead of time, so when a crisis occurs you don't n
Re: No evidence of human-to-human transmission (Score:1)
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Preparing is acquiring enough for reasonable use. Buying hundreds of rolls, even though you'll use a small portion of it, is still hoarding.
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The worst part is the waste. So many people forget toilet paper has *2* sides!
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Zero risk (Score:1)
Also the reason we're out isn't capacity or even shipping lanes at this point. The TP manufacturers are not going to radically increase supply to meet temporary demand because TP doesn't go bad for years (decades if stored properly). Meaning when this is all over you're going to see a monumental drop in toilet paper sales as folks use up the 80 rolls they bought panic buying.
What I want is Bread Flour. Apparently board folks are buying it
Re:No evidence of human-to-human transmission (Score:5, Insightful)
People feel better when they can do something, even if that thing makes sense.
I once talked to a cultural anthropologist whose research area was devastated by a Cat 5 cyclone. Her research subjects went into town and looted things they had no possible use for. People with no electricity stole electric appliances and TV sets. When the immediate emergency passed, they returned the stuff they'd looted. When she asked them why they took stuff they had no use for, the villagers were mystified by their own behavior. It made no sense to them.
There's a lot of evolutionary stuff that goes on below our conscious level of thinking. Human beings are in the animal world uniquely dependent upon *stuff*, and it's a safe bet all of us have ancestors who survived some catastrophe by grabbing stuff and running away.
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"There's a lot of evolutionary stuff that goes on below our conscious level of thinking. "
I have still got plenty of stone axes my ancestor Uggh hoarded during the pestilence in the stone-age.
They don't have an expiration-date, which is great.
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You'd be surprised how useful a good slingshot is in a pinch too
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Teach a man to hunt and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to flint-knap and he'll spend the rest of his life scraping animal hides.
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"Can someone explain why the fuck people are hoarding the tp?
The virus causes a cough, not diarrhea."
The diarrhea comes when you hear somebody coughing behind you.
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"I mean, the seasonal flu has killed almost as many people in the U.S. in 2020 as this disease has killed worldwide."
The explanation I saw was that this is a psychological effect, a desire to take some proactive affirmative action, regardless of it's actual utility.
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As I heard it--Australia imports some of the low-grade wood pulp that they use to make (toilet) paper,,, from China.
Due to the corona flu taking off in China and beginning to spread elsewhere, one Australian paper company said (~a month ago) they would halt imports of Chinese wood pulp temporarily, until everybody could figure out wtf was going on with all this.
Word got out that "there wouldn't be enough toilet paper" so Australians began hoarding it first.
{---I was to
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Can someone explain why the fuck people are hoarding the tp?
Because when you can buy it practically whenever you like, keeping enough stock for 2 weeks would be fine.
But when you are worried you cannot. or do not want to, go out to buy them for 3 months, you will buy enough for 6 months and hence stock 12 times as much in your home.
When everybody tried to buy 6 months worth of stock in one week, then the late comers won't get any.
The same goes for food and any consumable people needed while staying at home.
TP versus TP (Score:1)
While there is a certain amount of emotional payoff to the "people behave badly in a crisis (unlike sensible people such as me)" narrative, the actual reason for people buying more TP than usual appears to be a bit more mundane. They will need more TP when they're staying home.
TP is not one product, but two: commercial and residential. And switching the production and distribution from one to the other, and then back again later is a non-trivial task.
More and better details in the article.
https://marke
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Another link: https://www.econlib.org/toilet... [econlib.org]
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SCBA would not have been particularly useful unless you also bought at the same time the means to "refill" the SCBA tanks with filtered air. You want a standard P100 Provided Air respirator. An appropriate "moonsuit" and effective PAPR headset will cost you about $10,000.00., and they can still be ordered through Amazon.
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That was on January 14, *explicitly* forwarding the information provided by the Chinese authorities.
What would *you* have done with that information, back then?
Stocked up on tp, hand sanitizer and n95 masks? Maybe a Scotts Air Pack...
That’s what I did! And food and a few other supplies. I was pretty sure when the first case hit the US, and I was pretty sure they would, people would panic. It’s nice to be right once in a while.
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That was on January 14, *explicitly* forwarding the information provided by the Chinese authorities.
What would *you* have done with that information, back then?
The smart thing.
Trust, but Verify.
That was a given 20 fucking years ago with China. Today, that should be international law with them. Can't believe I have to spell it out for both *you*, and the WHO.
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I've actually worked in public health data. Verifying takes a long time.
Re:No evidence of human-to-human transmission (Score:5, Informative)
That was on January 14, *explicitly* forwarding the information provided by the Chinese authorities.
What would *you* have done with that information, back then?
Stocking up on supplies would not have worked because at that point China was already seeing a surge in local demand and it would have been difficult to export.
Enforcing a quarantine at the borders would not have worked either. You can have a look at the virus evolution + "travels" model at WHO: https://nextstrain.org/ncov [nextstrain.org]
I have an out-of-date comment on that which I need to update that explains some of the details on how to read that on my blog: https://www.fagain.co.uk/node/... [fagain.co.uk]
To make a long story short - on the 14th of January the virus was already in Iran, England (or Holland) and USA. While "upping the defences at the border" may have slowed down things, ultimately, the enemy was already inside the castle walls.
On
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Yup, blocking travel is useless. That's why most?many?all? places have done it at this point.
I guess it all depends on your definition of "worked".
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Yup, blocking travel is useless. That's why most?many?all? places have done it at this point.
I guess it all depends on your definition of "worked".
OK, my fault, I probably was not clear enough. Blocking travel does help and it did help slow down the spread. Anything else aside, the process of travel is very infection prone. You pack sardines in a can and you ship them half the way across the globe. You after that (in the specific case of USA) make them wait for 2 hours at the maximum packing density so they can exchange the infection between passengers from different flights.
My point is that the virus was already "inside" so no country could have a
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Reducing the influx would have slowed down the rate of infection. It is true that that it would not have stopped Covid entirely, however that does not negate the value in reducing the rate of how many people are bringing Covid19 into the US to begin with. The more people that come in, the sooner the growth curve starts to hit. Shutting down travel right away gave more lead time before the ramp up begins on the growth curve. Compare how long it took the US to hit the growth curve compared to Italy. Slowing d
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That was on January 14, *explicitly* forwarding the information provided by the Chinese authorities.
What would *you* have done with that information, back then?
Someone noticed what our President did ... (from a Twitter [twitter.com])
The CDC issued its first warning on Jan 8
Trump held campaign rallies on Jan 9, Jan 14, Jan 28, Jan 30, Feb 10, Feb 19, Feb 20, Feb 21 & Feb 28
He golfed on Jan 18, Jan 19, Feb 1, Feb 15, Mar 7 & Mar 8
The first time he admitted the coronavirus might be a problem was Mar 13
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The CDC issued its first warning on Jan 8. You say that while at the same time saying the government didn't warn you.
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The CDC issued its first warning on Jan 8. You say that while at the same time saying the government didn't warn you.
I guessing that you mean "you" in general? 'Cause I didn't say we weren't warned.
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The CDC issued its first warning on Jan 8. You say that while at the same time saying the government didn't warn you.
Yes, and how long after that until Trump/Republicans took it seriously?
Not until a personal friend of his died from it. All the info and experts/advisers mean nothing to him. It's just noise until it affects him personally.
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The first time he admitted the coronavirus might be a problem was Mar 13
He announced a ban flights from China Jan 31st [nytimes.com]. That's a very clear admission that there is a problem. And that steps were being taken to address it.
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The first time he admitted the coronavirus might be a problem was Mar 13
He announced a ban flights from China Jan 31st [nytimes.com]. That's a very clear admission that there is a problem. And that steps were being taken to address it.
So... after 4 campaign rallies and 2 weekends of golf -- and before 5 more campaign rallies and 4 weekends of golf. Got it.
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>What would *you* have done with that information, back then?
Distrusted the Chinese Communist party information regardless of what it is.
Basically the very structure of the party is built to suppress and distort information flows, not encourage transmission and dissemination of correct information.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: I agree with this (Score:1)
2020 -- whem freedom officially became "dumb",
and comformist herd panic officially overwhelmed sane common sense and wise behavior.
What if I told you those most rare among Americans, ... the brain user ... can do an entire shopping tour without ever touching anything, neither directly nor indirectly, nor breathing/coughing/sneezing/farting/... onto anything but the floor and dirty corners.
Butt-naked with only some plastic bags for the feet and hands, if needed.
Yeah, if you are a voter, clearly YOU can't, an
Re: I agree with this (Score:1)
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What happened to American responsibility? Isn't that supposed to be a part of this? Bootstraps and some-such?
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There are doctors dying of corona virus (Score:2)
But I'd rather have my doctor have a mask and take my chances (while doing all the stay at home I can) then have him get it and be down for weeks sick and/or dead.
Also, when this is over we need to seriously question the failures of our entire
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China's already closed them (Score:2)
And the rest of world knew the wet markets were a problem (epidemiologists have been calling them out for years) and turned a blind eye because the money was good and because it helped rural communities.
It was a hell of a lot easier (and cheaper, and more profitable) to have rural communities trade in wildlife than to try and build them up Marshall Plan style.
If your neighbor is pouring gas on his lawn to kill weeds and you watch him do it every day and say and do not
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Funny thing is, you could say this was ultimately caused by capitalism and markets, go figure.
brushing (Score:2)
Good (Score:1)
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Err no. N95 masks are not fit tested in any industry and only come in one size. Don't confuse them with full respirators.
Re:Good (Score:5, Informative)
Slashdot needs a "Wrong" moderation - your post deserves it. N95 masks are typically fit tested in medical settings, though some facilities are skipping that requirement now since so many masks are being re-used. They also come in multiple sizes.
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OSHA appears to disagree with you. Here's their complete procedure for fit testing an N95: http://www.kdheks.gov/cphp/dow... [kdheks.gov]
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OSHA appears to disagree with you. Here's their complete procedure for fit testing an N95: http://www.kdheks.gov/cphp/dow... [kdheks.gov]
Then OSHA is wrong. Doesn't matter how fit they are, they're glorified dust masks. They do nothing for the wearer. Breath and air goes right around the mask, and it does not filter anything, because the air pressure of breath easily overpowers their cheesy stringy elastic bands. Medical professionals wearing N95 and expecting protection are being infected by the hundreds. N95 should only be worn by sick people, because N95 can not possibly protect the wearer from virus infection. To actually be protected, y
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Um, wow. Okay, the rest of the world is wrong and you're right. Must be amazing to be you.
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He's right, you know. You should wear a minimum of an N/P100 if you really want a proper fit and filtration to remove very small liquid droplets and virus particles.
N95s really are glorified dust masks. That's exactly what we use them for. Nicer dust masks. For everything else we use an APR and goggles with the appropriate filter set.
Sam
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N95 is only effective if you're fit tested for the proper model and know how to properly put it on.
We were told by the medical community that wearing a mask is worse than not wearing one, that masks are for infected people.
Now they are getting nearly exclusive access to masks, telling us how essential it is that the medical community has them so that they can wear them.
Was it a lie for the greater good?
Or was it a lie because they are selfish fucks?
A bit of both. Surely.
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The medical community needs them for more than just personal protection. Healthcare workers who are literally in the middle of a plague are amazing disease vectors with orders of magnitude more impact than J random person.
Improperly fit masks are probably more harm than good, because you will continually touch your face to adjust them. Masks that aren't fit (i.e.surgical masks) have the same problem, and are also far less effective (they prevent YOU from getting OTHER people sick, they are not designed to
Screw the nursing homes I guess (Score:2)
At first place this seems reasonable - however there are a ton of people that would be considered health care workers, that do not work at a hospital. Like for instance everyone who works at any assisted living center in the country...
I think what is really needed is way better procedures around sterilization of equipment, as hospitals throw away way to many things like masks that could be re-used if sterilized. Even if you could just reuse a mask a handful of times it would greatly lower the spike demand
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Not so sure - sterilizing stuff takes man hours. Sterilizing stuff that can't be autoclaved is difficult. You're going to, what, soak these cheap masks in bleach solution overnight? Doesn't seem practical. But even if it were, that's labor spent doing that instead of something else.
I think effort would be better spent to just have mask manufacturing capability in the US to begin with, instead of importing everything from China. It's much easier and faster to ramp up production when you already have pro
Pandemic masks (Score:2)
Fortunately, the plague doctor masks [amazon.com] are still available.
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Not only will they save your life, they'll get you a few messages on Fetlife
Consumers can still buy KN95 masks (Score:4, Informative)
This is the Chinese equivalent to N95. Experts in the field say they are equivalent. Unfortunately, health care providers aren't allowed to used them. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/a... [buzzfeednews.com]
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That's okay (Score:3)
I only order N94 masks anyway, they're 1.05% cheaper.
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Its a magazine!
perfect timing (Score:1)
hmm (Score:2)
Never sure each day whether I'm in something by Fellini, Monty Python, or Orwell.
"Masks don't work! (also, er we need them for the important people)"
"Oh, by the way now we're mulling possibly ordering you to wear one. Even though you can't buy any, you greedy hoarder. Next up, make bricks without straw. "