Ever since the spring of 2003, I’ve been frequently traveling back to China to attend my parents’ various health issues and for every visit, I almost always developed severe upper respiratory infections on the way back to San Francisco (apology for those whom might have been infected along the way).
The US consulate in Beijing started to monitor the poor air quality back in 2008 and shared it through various social media.
It was not until 2012 I started to bring N95 masks back to China whenever I traveled there. The 3M N95 mask has this funny looking plastic valve and I looked like a total outsider in the crowd. People stared at me with the expression almost exactly like what we saw people here back in January of 2020 staring at a person wearing a mask: “what’s wrong with you?!”.
One day one toddler crouching on his mom’s shoulder pointed at my mask with his tiny fat arm and spoke loudly on a bus jammed with people:” Mommy, that auntie’s face looks like a piggy face!”
So, the next time when I went back, I was equipped with nasal disinfectant spray in case I was in places where I’d better not wear a mask to either scare or amuse people.
But the good thing was that I no longer suffered from upper respiratory infection every time I came back.
On my 2013 Oct trip, in the elevator of my parents’ new apartment, I was stopped for the very first time by strangers asking where I got the N95 masks.
I started to smile behind the mask. The tide was finally turning and I no longer felt uneasy to wear N95 masks on the streets of Chengdu anymore.
It actually became a short-lived fashion for trendy youngsters in my hometown before it became a new norm in China to fight for PM2.5 smog.
I always overstocked the N95 masks due to my frequent and unplanned trips to China and I always brought half a dozen masks more than needed with me so I can leave behind the unused ones to friends around me back there.
Gradually in recent years, ironically, my overstocked N95 masks became handy and much-needed donation items for my local communities due to the wildfires.
Then COVID-19 started.
I almost sent my latest overstocked batch to Wuhan in mid of January 2020 when there was a mask fundraising event held to hoard all the masks for doctors there. The ask dropped at the last minute because the mighty event organizers found large quantities of surgical masks through special channels.
Then, the virus traveled across the ocean and all of a sudden the mask shortage was up and close in our own communities.
Once again, I was almost ready to donate my N95 masks to one of my Kaiser doctor friend’s department but was stopped at the last minute based on the hospital’s guidance.
Then the SCU fire broke off and we were at the borderline of the evacuation zone. So, I threw that box of 3M N95 masks into our evacuation luggage and get ready to give them a good use, after all!
The evacuation order then dropped so the masks went back to the closet.
Last weekend, for the first time since SIP started, we decided to venture into public transits. We started with a 10-minute ferry ride in Tiburon to the Angels Island.
To demonstrate our goodwill to keep the public safe, I pulled out the never-be-able-to-do-good-since-2018 3M N95 and wore it when I got out of the car and walked into the Woodland Market grocery store to grab two sandwiches before we headed for the ferry.
On my way out in the checkout line, one staff step out and said to me:
“Ma’am, you are wearing a disqualified mask for this store. It’s a one-way protection type. Next time make sure you wear a 2-way protective mask.”
I was almost frozen there.
How could I overlook that aspect until someone pointed out?
And I saved them and almost twice donated them to allow far and near doctors to fight for COVID-19!
For the rest of the day on the trip, my husband and I wore them as if we were spreading germs or wearing the big letter “A” the same way the poor soul did in Howthrone’s novel.
Today, the first box of the COVID-19/PM2.5 proof masks highly recommended by our daughter arrived and for the first time, I saw that “2-way protection” jumping out and making sense to me.
Here goes the death penalty for my last box of 3M N95. I put them into one far corner in the garage and wonder when will be a proper time to use them in public in the near future. Maybe never ever again, for the sake of the now Covid-19 highly educated paranoid minds.
