Paper towel mask inserts
I was just watching my recording of Joy Reid's Sunday broadcast. She interviewed Jeremy Howard who wrote an article for The Guardian about wearing masks right now and Dr. Ashish Jha of the Harvard Global Health Institute who appears daily on MSNBC to talk about cv19.
Jeremy Howard pointed out several things. The Chinese have figured out that wearing a two layered cotton mask with a piece of paper towel inserted in between the layers can impede the virus from being transmitted because paper towels are so similar to surgical mask material. Conversation is now recognized as the main way that cv19 is being transmitted. Modelling suggests that if 80% of communities wears masks outdoors, "we can actually kill this virus".
So if no HEPA filters are available, the paper towel rectangle slipped into a mask pocket is efficient because of how similar it is to surgical mask material, Howard advised. I'm encouraged by this because until the HEPA filters I purchased via eBay arrive I feel confident to wear a mask with paper toweling inserted if I make an Rx pickup.
I'm sewing masks with open pockets so filter inserts and nose wires can be refreshed.
We've observed that none of our out & about Lakewood, Colorado neighbors are wearing masks. Not even the kids. When I picked up groceries at a local King Soopers last week I saw only one man wearing a mask as he walked through the busy parking lot.
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And husband needed some tarps. Plus there was a coupon that took a few bucks off.
I swear, I'm doing more shopping now than ever. 
I made two small changes
-Where she top stitched along the top of the fold for the filter pocket - I also top stitched right above that along the pocket of the nose wire. In other words, along both edges of the opening for the filter insert.
-She inserted a nose wire and then enclosed it by stitching along the whole pocket to seal it in. I left an opening in the middle of that pocket instead so it can be swapped out. I treated it just like she did for the filter insert pocket.
These two tweaks are easy to understand once you view her video. Btw, I slowed down the video speed in the Settings so I could understand her process. It's nice because there's no talking and everything she does is clearly captured in view. I did have to watch it a few times slowing it down if I got confused.
The top image is the front. The bottom is the back or inside showing the top stitched pockets.
PM me if you have any questions at all. She also has a video for a mask with fabric ties and no cutting the tie pieces on the bias!
good idea to slow it down and watch bits at a time while you are making it.
Once I had a loose idea of how she made the mask I could dive in. But I had my phone open to the video, too. After one mask I'm super confident about making these.
I'm going to make the side bias tape tubes slightly wider to make it easier to get the elastic pulled inside. I also hand stitched the elastic with a few quick stitches to make the circle. I've also have eyelet pliers and small eyelets to join the ends of the elastic. If that works it'll speed up the process. But the hand stitching was easier than fiddling at the sewing machine.
One last thing, I didn't think I wanted elastic around the ears. But this mask is surprisingly comfortable with good face coverage. I had already cut out her mask with the fabric ties. But husband asked for this one so I made it first. Now, it's the one I'll always make until I get bored.
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