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Comment by muzani | Hacker News Reader

I bought N95 masks a few times. It was pricey - about as much as a latte. I can't afford that every day, so I recycled the mask a few times. (This was not for COVID-19, but some other issues when my wife was in ICU and air pollution issues)

China can export those masks if they're not using them. Right now it's printing money. But even when this pandemic blows over, they'll still sell for a good price in countries without that manufacturing capacity.

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they're not nearly as expensive each if you buy a box of them. I think it used to cost like $12 for 2 or $16 for 10, speaking in the before-time of course.

Eh, not in the US. I bought a 10 pack of 3M N95s last April in anticipation of forest fires that had screwed up air quality the last two years. They were $40 for the 10, so roughly the price of a latte per day.

Fortunately, the fires didn't happen, so I now have 10 masks, but I have absolutely no idea when/how the right time to bring use them is, and I'm doubtful that 10 would make the difference (my local healthy community is currently well stocked even if there's no available at retail).

Also to those wondering, the CDC says that, when worn correctly and while limiting adjustments, N95 masks can last up to 8 hours of continuous use for disease prevention. So yes, it's basically a 1-a-day thing.

EDIT: Forgot to add the citation

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/hcwcontrols/recommendedguid...

I think you overpaid, I paid less than half that the last time I bought a box of 10, which was not at a time of high demand.

The retail price of a 3M N9501V before the Cov-2 was about 4 Yuan, in mainland China, for a box of 100, plus postage (I used to buy for staff and leave on the front desk for high pollution days) which accounting for CNYUSD at the time was about $70. $40 for 10 sounds high. The current price is an order of magnitude higher (consistent with article material sourcing prices). Pricing seems very demand-elastic, and not only masks, the Just-In-Time supply-chain, regardless of China or anywhere, seems very vulnerable to low-probability (but inevitable, don't like to use the term 'black swan' as it's not, something big happens every decade) large impact events.

I'm sure hospitals in Seattle, new Rochelle, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, and LA county could use them. Really any county. 10 masks would be really helpful

I think you are right that there will be a premium on these type masks after all this blows over regardless of supply. Especially in countries that have no domestic production capabilities.

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