Nation Jan 19 As officials stress importance of N95s, White House will make 400 million available for free By Zeke Miller, Associated Press
Health Feb 25 Feds OK’d export of millions of N95 masks even as U.S. workers needed more In the hours before President Joe Biden was inaugurated, the Federal Emergency Management Agency allowed a Texas mask maker to ship the high-quality masks overseas. By Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News
Health Feb 17 WATCH: U.S. federal agents seize over 10 million fake N95 masks Officials say the most recent seizures occurred Wednesday when Homeland Security agents intercepted hundreds of thousands of counterfeit 3M masks in an East Coast warehouse that were set to be distributed. By Associated Press
Health Feb 16 Hospitals still ration medical N95 masks as stockpiles swell One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of medical-grade N95 face masks are pouring out of American factories and heading into storage, yet doctors and nurses say there still aren’t enough to keep them safe. By Jason Dearen, Juliet Linderman, Martha Mendoza, Associated Press
Health Feb 10 Government investigating massive counterfeit N95 mask scam The foreign-made knockoffs are becoming increasingly difficult to spot and could put health care workers at grave risk for the coronavirus. A federal official says these masks are giving first responders "a false sense of security."… By Colleen Long, Associated Press
Aug 25 New virus cases decline in the U.S. and experts credit masks By Carla K. Johnson, Adam Geller, Associated Press The number of Americans newly diagnosed with the coronavirus is falling — a development experts credit at least partly to increased wearing of masks — even as the outbreak continues to claim nearly 1,000 lives in the U.S. each day. Continue reading
Jul 07 Personal protective gear for U.S. medical workers begins to run low again By Geoff Mulvihill, Camille Fasset, Associated Press The personal protective gear that was in dangerously short supply during the early weeks of the coronavirus crisis in the U.S. is running low again. Continue reading
May 12 Counterfeit masks reaching frontline health workers in U.S. By Juliet Linderman, Martha Mendoza, Associated Press The story of how one brand of counterfeits has infiltrated America’s supply chains illustrates how the lack of coordination amid massive shortages has plunged the country’s medical system into chaos. Continue reading
May 06 California Gov. Newsom’s billion-dollar mask deal hits snag By Kathleen Ronayne, Associated Press California Gov. Gavin Newsom says millions of protective masks purchased under a billion-dollar deal with a Chinese company are facing a delay in the federal certification process. Continue reading
May 05 Watch 4:02 Traveling to Arizona, Trump wrestles with fallout of new death projections By John Yang As the U.S. coronavirus death toll passed 70,000, President Trump departed the White House for his first cross-country trip since the pandemic’s eruption, visiting an Arizona Honeywell plant that makes N95 masks. Despite a projection that daily deaths in the… Continue watching