Now that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that N95 respirator masks offer the best protection against Covid, the next question is where to get them.
CNBC offers a helpful guide here. The government is providing 400 million N95 masks to pharmacies and community health centers over the next several weeks, which will be available for free, up to three per person.
You can find a list of the pharmacies here.
It includes Walgreens (WBA), CVS Pharmacy (CVS), Kroger (KR), Albertsons (ACI), Walmart (WMT) and Costco (COST). And you can find out which health centers are near you here.
You’ll want to call ahead to make sure the masks are available before you head to the pharmacy or health center. The Biden administration said the program will be fully up and running by early next month. It starts next week.
The CDC ranks N95 masks as offering the most protection from Covid, followed by KN95s, which are the Chinese version of the N95; followed by disposable surgical masks; followed by cloth masks.
But be careful with KN95s. The CDC said that 60% of them didn’t meet the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) evaluation requirements.
If you decide to buy your own mask, CNBC recommends opting for the NIOSH-approved N95s. Further, it suggests buying from reliable retailers that deal directly with mask manufacturers, such as CVS or Home Depot (HD), or directly from mask makers, such as 3M (MMM) or Honeywell (HON), on each companies official website.
