It sounds like, "We don't have them. So, you don't need them."
I am glad a scarf is OK.
Also, distributors are gouging the prices. Gov Cuomo said that the masks the state usually buy were $.85 and are now $7.00. These people should be named so we know whom to avoid.

These face covers should be provided for free given they are mandating them for everyone.

The only answer I am hearing is cut up a tee shirt to make one.

So the health system is requiring us to furnish our own protection under this crisis?

Why should I destroy my own property, my tee shirts tend to be special, not just a white plain one. They have more value than to just cut them up.

These should be being distributed by the county health department or the city health department.

> These face covers should be provided for free given they are mandating them for everyone.

Please provide the link to the "MANDATE".

> These face covers should be provided for free given they are mandating them for everyone.

Again, no mandate. But yes, our federal government KNEW we'd need these, back in January. Trump shipped 17.8 tons of masks, supplies, etc.. to China in February. Web Link

Pence's team was calling Thailand this week looking for masks, and was asked: "you mean the ones you just shipped us?"

Web Link

"Last week, a Trump administration official working to secure much-needed protective gear for doctors and nurses in the United States had a startling encounter with counterparts in Thailand.

The official asked the Thais for help—only to be informed by the puzzled voices on the other side of the line that a U.S. shipment of the same supplies, the second of two so far, was already on its way to Bangkok."

***

We need a 911-style, bi-partisan investigation into all this.

This is a supreme failure of leadership.

I ordered masks over a month ago. Supposed to get today cloth and in mid to late April for disposable. The cloth haven’t arrived yet. We will see. Tried bandana but makes my glasses fogged so I can’t see. Will try something else I guess. I may have to have my niece in Santa Fe make me some. And mail to me. My sister says she is making them . I don’t have a sewing machine myself.

re: glasses fogging - I have worn medical masks professionally, and I am sad to report that they do not eliminate the fogging of glasses. I encourage anyone who has unused medical masks (regular surgical or N95 masks) to donate them to your nearest hospital. This could save a life. Maybe the wire shaping the mask around the nose helps a little bit, but I've seen people doing that with pipe cleaners or bread bag twist ties.

As confusing as this has been from our country's leadership, wearing a face mask , even a fabric one, can help keep people who have asymptomatic COVID-19 from infecting others. And we should have been using these a long time ago. I do not need a mandate, or a law, to see that this is another step in taking care of me (wearing a mask) while also taking care of you.

There are sewing patterns online that use a wire - pipe cleaner or other thin wire - that fits over the nose and this eliminates the fogging of my glasses. These masks are very easy to make and can be sewn by hand if no sewing machine is available.

Thank you everyone who is choosing to use a mask.

In later January when my company’s China office reported the VIRUS status, our headquarter based in Massachusetts coordinated among all US and EU offices to ship masks and protective clothes to China for charitable cause because company want to demonstrate humanity and no one would have known this VIRUS has been highly contagious and spreading globally.