Letters to the Editor: Why you shouldn’t shame the shopper wearing gloves and an N95 mask

To the editor: Columnist Nita Lelyveld makes an excellent point about how we should discard used gloves and masks in trash cans and not in parking lots. However, I’d like to clarify one important fact: Most of the gloves she is seeing are not for medical use.

Many of these gloves are made for people who engage in messy garage projects. So yes, we garage hobbyists had a stockpile before the pandemic. Also, painters, surfboard makers, gardeners and others needing to protect themselves from fumes, dust or allergens had a supply of N-95 masks in their garages, many in opened boxes, making them risky to donate to medical workers.

The last thing I need now is criticism at the grocery store as I wear my pink nitrile gloves, trying to protect my husband who has an underlying medical condition.

Diane Scholfield, Vista