As Pan mentioned, stores in America such as Home Depot and also CVS are sold out of face masks. Though the average American likely does not need a face mask, they are still buying them just to be safe.

Charlene Chang, a family nurse practitioner at CVS Pharmacy, doesn’t believe it’s necessary for so many people to be buying masks in America because not everyone needs one.

“I just feel bad for the people who actually need a face mask that, for example, might have cancer and are going through chemotherapy. It’s sad that we can’t offer them any,” Chang said.

Especially in China, stores are completely sold out of face masks and even other basic household supplies, like tissues and toilet paper. Some Chinese rely on their families in foreign countries to provide these goods.

Valerie Wong, a sophomore at Proof School in San Francisco, tries to help out her family in Hong Kong as much as she can.

“We’ve gone long measures to ask friends from other places in Asia to ship masks to our relatives in Hong Kong because there has been a shortage of masks. My grandmother lined up for six and a half hours in order to get a mask ticket to purchase a box of masks,” Wong said.