Why did Facebook have an "emergency reserve" of 720,000 masks?

[Recursion]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-facebook-masks-idUSKBN21911E

Facebook Inc (FB.O) Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Sunday that the social media company has donated its emergency reserve of 720,000 masks to provide health workers with more protective gear.

“To help, Facebook donated our emergency reserve of 720,000 masks that we had bought in case the wildfires continued,” Zuckerberg said in a post, adding that the company is also working on “sourcing a lot more to donate.”

The United States has seen a surge in demand for respirator masks caused by the coronavirus outbreak as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, over the next 18 months, aims to buy 500 million masks for the Strategic National Stockpile, the nation’s supply of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies.

OK, I mean, good on Facebook but... why did they have those?

[Turbineguy]

1. Forest fires.

[TwilightZone]

2. The answer seems to be in the text you quoted:

"we had bought in case the wildfires continued"

Was this supposed to be a trick question?

[Baitball Blogger]

3. .

“To help, Facebook donated our emergency reserve of 720,000 masks that we had bought in case the wildfires continued,”

[Recursion]

4. 720,000?

That just seems weird

[Frances]

6. You must not have been in CA during the fires

The air pollution was so bad you could not use the same mask more than a few times
I don’t like Facebook but I think it’s a good thing they donated the masks

[jberryhill]

7. That's around a one month supply

What do they have in the Menlo Park area, 20,000 or so?

30 days, and 600,000 are gone.

[RockRaven]

8. Masks are supposed to be disposable/single use. They've got a 5-figure number of employees

at their headquarters. Especially with people not used to wearing them, they'd likely go through a couple of masks per day. It's not comfortable, especially for hours at a time. Put it on, take it off, put it on, fiddle with it, take it off, put it on, take it off and discard it, get irritated by the air, get a new one, put it on, take it off... etc.

Yeah, that's still dozens of masks per employee. But the region has had multiple week-long bouts of dangerously smoky air from nearby wildfires in the past few years. Also, maybe they were counting on employees taking masks home for their families.

A 720K stockpile was a little overkill, but not that overkill, imo. Especially since once everyone in the region wants them (whether it be wildfire or pandemic), the suppliers can't supply everyone. There was a run on masks during the wildfires too.

[thesquanderer]

10. 15k employees at their main facility. Each mask with an 8-hour suggested maximum usage. n/t

[marble falls]

5. I don't have anything good to say about Zuckerburg. He did say this (from the op) ..."

"... we had bought in case the wildfires continued,” Zuckerberg said in a post, ..."

[Rorey]

9. The same reason that I am stocked up on certain items

I'm always stocked up on certain items in case, for whatever reason, something happens. FB shouldn't be faulted for this, IMO.

For instance, I have enough tp. I didn't go out and swoop it up when people were scrambling for it. I already had it. When there are sales on non-perishable goods that I use, I stock up. At this point I won't buy any tp, even if I came across some, because others need it.

This morning I went and picked up some reusable face masks that I found on craigslist, made locally. I asked the person I bought them from if she was getting a lot of orders, and she said she wasn't getting that many yet. I'm going to try out the ones I got, and decide which I like best, and then will order more from her. I can use these during the few times I need to go out in the coming weeks/months, and I can also use them when wildfire time hits. I also do various home improvement things where a mask is a good idea, so they're good to have on hand. I'm not undercutting anyone by buying them now, while they're not yet in high demand from her. If she said she couldn't keep up with orders, I'd make do with the few that I've bought so far.

BTW, this nice woman gives away masks to vulnerable people, and those in the medical field. She uses the profits from the ones she sells to buy materials for those she gives away.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

11. Wow,good on her.

I'm using my cloth masks and inserts I bought a long time ago for artwork, for going out .

[Rorey]

12. Good idea

I predict that as this COVID-19 thing blows up, people will be more on board with wearing masks. To me, it makes a lot more sense, and is environmentally correct, to have reusable masks.

And yeah, she's one of "those people". I just met her for the first time this morning, but I sense that she's the kind of person who would give the shirt off of her back to help someone. She's an inspiration.