I Bought N-95s Masks in 2018, A Whole Year Before Covid-19 Hit, Because I Read Newspapers

In December of 2018, after reading a newspaper story that said we were overdue for a pandemic, I bought a 10-pack of N-95 masks and showed the box to my family.

“I know this is kind of silly,” I remember saying, feeling like a crazy doomsday prepper. “But, you know, if the worst happens, we’ll be glad to have these.” If the Steven King novel of my imagination, or rather King’s imagination, ever came to be, I reasoned, the last place I’d want to be was inside a drugstore full of panicked, contagious people fighting to get their hands on masks.

Then I put the masks in the back of my pantry, near the black beans and rice and canned tomatoes, and more or less forgot about them.

In early February, after stocking up a bit more than usual on things like beans, rice, flour and toilet paper, I fished the box of masks out of storage. I had read the news reports out of China, and was surprised that nobody else seemed to be concerned. I remember looking around the grocery store, where everything was business as usual, and wondering if nobody else was reading the actual news.

I credit my habit of reading solid news for my understanding of the world and thus my ability to prepare as much as possible.

I was the editor of a small daily paper until five years ago this week, and I believe in newspapers. I get the print edition of the New York Times on the weekends and read the…