4/21/20 Edit: San Francisco peeps! Beginning April 22, 2020 masks will be required to cover your face when shopping, taking transit, seeking healthcare, among other activities. The rule went into effect 4/17, but will not be enforced until 4/22. Masks with one-way exhalation valves do not comply with the order’s requirements. Despite protecting the wearer, droplets can escape from the mask’s valve and put those around you at risk.

Welcome back! It’s day 31 of “sheltering in place” in San Francisco. Dear reader, I hope wherever you are in the world that you and yours are staying safe and healthy. For those of us who can stay home let’s keep trying to do our best to help #flattenthecurve and keep our essential workers—healthcare workers, grocery workers, delivery workers, immigrant workers—safe. Let’s also do our best for those who can’t afford to stay home. Everyone has a role to play; we’re in this together.

To that end, I’ve put together some links on how to make your own homemade non-medical masks and where to donate them as well as much needed PPE supplies. A caveat before I continue: I am not a medical professional, and information with respect to COVID-19 is still unfolding. Please do your own research as staying informed helps dispel harmful misinformation.

I know it’s not easy taking in the latest news about COVID-19, or how people are being racist, or how so many have lost their jobs or are facing eviction from their homes, and not have it negatively affect your mental health. The rage, depression, anxiety, fear, guilt that assails me when I read the news can leave me feeling rather bleak and set a dark mood for the rest of the day. To help keep my days productive, I’ve started leaving the news for the evening and talk the events through with the hub so I’m not alone with my thoughts. It isn’t foolproof, but being able to verbally vent has helped my mental health. I’m also learning to be kinder to myself on days I do fall apart, because sometimes falling apart is what it takes to get back up.

Where to Donate PPE & Homemade Masks

If you decide to make your own masks with the intention of donating:

1. First check to see where masks might be needed in your area

2. Contact the location to see how they want the mask sown as the facility may favor a pattern or construction (2-ply versus 3-ply)

The grassroots collective website Make Masks helps you identify which areas in your state need homemade masks and how many are being requested. There is also Mask Match whose aim is to “send your masks to healthcare workers without leaving your house.” Per their website as of the date of this post, Mask Match accepts medical grade filtration masks, all surgical masks, and homemade masks. They even have a handy G-doc guide for best practices for sewing and links to other homemade mask resources.

For San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area, many hospitals are also accepting donations and list on their website which supplies they are and aren’t accepting and where to drop them off. Some of the hospitals accepting supplies include:

• UCSF

• Chinese Hospital

• In Berkeley, Councilwoman Rashi Kesarwani has a site where to donate PPE

• This KQED article, updated 4/13, has an extensive list of hospitals accepting donations. They even have a useful “Map View” that allows you to see at a glance where you can donate supplies in the Bay Area.

If you prefer not to drop off supplies at a hospital, this article on Hoodline lists local businesses (and even the Oakland Public Library) that are accepting masks with the intention of donating them to the hospitals.

4/21 Edit: Masks with a one-way exhalation valves are not recommended as they do not block the transmission of COVID-19. They protect the wearer, but not the people around you, thus putting them at risk.

How to Make Your Own Mask

For those of you talented with needle and thread, this video by Angela Clayton takes you step-by-step on how to sew your own mask. Here’s a different link for those who prefer to read their instructions (scroll down to the bottom of the post for the instructions).

For those of us who can’t sew, myself included, here is a video by Asia Jackson showing you step-by-step how to transform a piece of cloth or bandana into a DIY face mask. Here’s a different link for those who prefer to read their instructions.

I hope this post was helpful in some way. Stay safe and healthy everyone <333

Until next we meet,

EMM