I guess I'm not convinced that the 10th one shouldn't go to them too. They are dealing with a vastly increased risk of exposure than I am, and likely with significantly greater infectious loads as well, which may^[1] increase the severity of the disease.

If for some reason I had to spend a lot of time in close proximity to other people, that might merit a homemade mask, but otherwise I think I'd be doing a far better job protecting both of us and everyone else we interact with (in the process of obtaining food and essential supplies) by giving it to my wife before she heads out for her next shift at the hospital.

^[1] https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/sars-cov-2-viral-load-and-the-...

Firstly, if everyone does this, there's 10% fewer masks for doctors than there'd be otherwise. I would posit that their need is so much drastically greater that they really should get every last one.

Remember—your job is to stay six feet away from everyone else, on the off chance they might have the Coranavirus. Doctors and nurses are getting up close with people they know for sure have the Coronavirus, all day, every day.

But more importantly, the masks are disposable! It's not like you can keep one and use it indefinitely.

The homemade mask in the video I linked above is made out of a tshirt and is washable except for the papertowel filter.

> if everyone does this, there's 10% fewer masks for doctors than there'd be otherwise

Right, but the point is to make as many as possible, hopefully with a better ratio.