As to Monona's inquiry about state of N95. I assume most folks know by now my company has been selling those since this all started.  In the past few months, we've been contacted by three different US manufacturers about selling their startup N95 products, two of which have NIOSH approval already and one of which is pending. Production of those are ramping nicely although they are all priced rather high as the manufacturers are trying to pay off startup costs and, of course, the cost of US labor.

Many hospitals, at least on the East Coast and in states that have their acts in gear, appear to be pretty well supplied with medical-grade (FDA-approved; liquid resistant) N95's.  For example, I know of a regional hospital here that has 225+ days of PPE on hand and ongoing supply agreements moving forward. And most hospitals out here are owned by large networks so their peers are well set, too.  Independent and rural hospitals elsewhere in the US, well, that's another matter, I assume.

That said, we've been seeing fierce downward pressure on N95's and especially non-medical earl loop masks, which is to be expected with supply orders that were placed six months ago in addition to domestic ramp up (and 3M's gargantuan efforts, of course). We'll be selling NIOSH N95's for under $1 each by the end of February although the US ones will remain $3-4, I expect. Some sellers of N95's and ear loop masks are now faced with inventory concerns - too much, not too little.  Those who have not successfully penetrated the market are looking to unload supplies they paid dearly for before they are left holding the bag. 

On that basis, our health officials should be now be encouraging high risk populations (e.g half the general public) to wear (non-medical!) NIOSH N95's.  But they presumably don't want to cause confusion or diversion of the medical grade ones, I suppose.

Rob Toreki

PS:  I get so frustrated by sites like BGR and Buzzfeed etc. that have lists of "the best masks" that refer people to KN95 garbage and cloth masks for sale on Amazon when we are selling genuine protection for less.  Those "recommendations" are based on kickbacks for purchase referrals.  I've emailed a few of them and said hey - we don't have the margin to give you a reward for spreading the word, but you should list our stuff because it's better and cheaper.  Crickets in response. I understand they have to make money somehow, but for something as literally life and death as this, well, it tells me a lot about their character, sadly.