Respirator Mask

Claimed Object #0

Rather than chosen by a reader of the book, this mask was donated to an ER doctor friend during the first weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic. He has just sent me this story:

” In the first months of the pandemic, as scenes of overwhelmed hospitals were beamed to us from Milan, Madrid and Manhattan, and as our own hospital was rationing items as basic as paper gowns, and limiting us to one N-95 mask per day, my colleagues and I in the ER decided to try to beg (because one could no longer buy) reusable respirators as a hedge against the day when even one disposable mask might not be available.  Jeff’s was the first of what would eventually be a couple dozen such donations that I gathered from our community.  Happily they all sat unneeded in a paper bag in my garage until the day came when I wore one for an operation closer to their original intent–planing a door.”

                    Ben L, Berkeley, CA