There was something wrong with the face masks we've been wearing..Addendum...
For the last six weeks. Management went through the clinic today and quietly collected all the boxes of a certain face mask manufacturer we've been using. We have several brands and it was just this one brand they collected. Some of us kept noticing a chemical smell when we put them on, although most of us continued to wear them. Rumors are it was a pesticide. I do not have confirmation, though.
Just effing great.
A coworker sent me a message and said the masks were manufactured with ethylene oxide, a carcinogen.
= new reply since forum marked as read
We should have listened to our guts. Several of my coworkers complained that the masks were making their faces break-out in a weird rash. I only got one little sore under my bottom lip, barely noticeable, but I sure did think they smelled bad, kind of a petroleum smell. I haven't seen anything about it online, although there are several stories concerning masks being shipped out with unacceptable levels of bacteria.
I guess we'll know if there is a future cluster of lymphoma among my coworkers at the clinic.
I'll wait until we know more. Thanks for your supportive thoughts. though.
For all I know, they were donated.
I am sorry this is happening. It is unforgivable.
My sister is an ER nurse in Atlanta, currently ill (at home) with COVID-19, though with less severe symptoms (thank God)-- since May 04. While she is not hospitalized and has no respiratory symptoms she has debilitating headaches and classic "viral syndrome," so to say "mild" symptoms seem very much an underestimate.
For months major Atlanta hospitals have had PPE shortages and offered little guidance in how to safely reuse PPE. They, in fact, expected face shields to be "shared"... (unbelievable). None of my colleagues across the country have shared anything but horror stories in this regard.
Any HCW or even minimally intelligent or educated American that votes for Trump ought to be lining up for a straight jacket. 
Gosh, so sorry about your sister. Nothing bothers me more than the front-line workers getting sick. Our clinic is not "hot," so supposedly we aren't seeing COVID, although I'm sure we've had some slip through who were asymptomatic.
My thoughts will be with your sis, hlthe2b.
We live across the country from each other and it's hard. At least you know at this point she's going to recover even though it may take a while. You just hate to know what they're through. though.
They were level-2 surgical. There have been instances of masks being tainted with bacteria and insects, though. I'm not sure I want to know anything else, LOL. Seriously, I'm not all that worried about it. Others are going through a lot worse.
