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Surprise couple’s efforts take on face mask supply shortages

Residents respond to virus spread by making masks at home for others

Posted 4/14/20

Reports about face mask precautions during the coronavirus pandemic are everywhere, from the medical community’s recommendations for uses to, sadly, supply shortages.

While the CDC advises …

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Surprise couple’s efforts take on face mask supply shortages

Residents respond to virus spread by making masks at home for others

Posted

Reports about face mask precautions during the coronavirus pandemic are everywhere, from the medical community’s recommendations for uses to, sadly, supply shortages.

While the CDC advises to wear cloth face coverings “in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies),” community neighbors are pulling together across the country to try and keep the face mask supplies flowing locally to halt the spread of the virus, and that includes one Surprise couple.

Jennifer Zayerz and Bryan Mefford both have medical backgrounds, and have been making cloth masks at home for healthcare workers, family, friends, co-workers, and local neighbors via the Nextdoor app.

“We both have worked in the healthcare field,” Mr. Mefford stated over email. “I was a medic and a respiratory therapist and Jennifer is a medical assistant and she is currently teaching the future medical assistants at UEI College.”

Ms. Zayerz has also made masks for some of her students who are out on externship. The couple is looking into other local agencies in need to also contribute their homemade masks.

CDC advises the use of simple cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and don’t know it from transmitting to others. Cloth face coverings fashioned from household items or made at home from common materials at low cost can be used as an additional, voluntary public health measure. They should be routinely washed depending on the frequency of use.

Cloth face coverings should not be placed on young children under age 2, the agency further advises, anyone who has trouble breathing, or is unconscious, incapacitated or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance.

Importantly, the cloth face coverings recommended are not surgical masks or N-95 respirators. Those are critical supplies that must continue to be reserved for healthcare workers and other medical first responders, as recommended by current CDC guidance.

Neighbors like Ms. Zayerz and Mr. Mefford are certainly doing their part, even incurring their own costs to protect the community.

“We had no idea how much this would cost so if people want to donate fabric, elastic, HEPA filters, their time to make them or just a small donation,” Mr. Mefford added. “Any of those things would help.”