The Biden Administration will begin making 400 million N95 masks available to Americans starting next week. The masks will be placed at thousands of local pharmacies and community health centers for free for anyone to pick up.

On Wednesday 19th, 2022, the White House announced that all the masks will come from the governments Strategic National Stockpile, which has more that 750 million masks on hand. The Strategic National Stockpile is a large collection of antibiotics, vaccines, chemical antidotes, antitoxins, and other critical medical supplies in the case of a national emergency.

The Biden Administration plans to begin shipping the masks this week for possible distribution throughout the country by next week, making it the largest distribution of masks since COVID-19 hit the United States. However, there is still many questions that have yet to be answered by the Administration. It is unknown if the masks will be considered reusable and what size the masks will come in, with many guardians wondering about children’s masks.

However, the White house has spoken about the number of masks per person, stating,” To ensure broad access for all Americans there will be three masks per person.”

Ever since the start of the pandemic there has been multiple attempts from the Biden Administration to limit the number of cases throughout the country from requiring mask mandates to requiring vaccinations. However, this is a huge step with the sheer number of masks.