Not only is Illinois facing a shortage of surgical masks and respirators, so is the entire world. Bulk purchases of face masks have left many hospitals without the tools to effectively protect themselves and their patients. Those at the front lines—nurses, doctors, and health care workers—need this protective gear in order to reduce the risk and spread of COVID-19. A few days ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a piece that suggested health-care personnel can create homemade masks as a crisis response to the shortage. This isn’t the first time DIY face masks have been called to action. In 2006, the CDC published a study on H5N1 which included a similar tactic for handmade face masks.
Dottie Jeffries is making masks and donating them to Montgomery Place, home to 200 older adults, in Hyde Park. She’s working with new and old T-shirts and pillowcases based on the recommendation and data found by Smart Air. “I have also read that flannel works well for the side of the mask that is against one’s face, but at the moment, I don’t have any flannel,” she says. For Jeffries, the hardest part of making and donating masks has been threading the needle. “I had not used my machine for 15 years,” she says. “So now I’m 15 years older!”
People wearing masks must wash them after one use, but right now, hospitals are in crisis mode (the CDC recommended health-care personnel wear bandanas or scarves). With millions of masks needed, people are stepping up and toward their sewing machines.
