Why did Facebook have an "emergency reserve" of 720,000 masks?

[RockRaven]

8. Masks are supposed to be disposable/single use. They've got a 5-figure number of employees

at their headquarters. Especially with people not used to wearing them, they'd likely go through a couple of masks per day. It's not comfortable, especially for hours at a time. Put it on, take it off, put it on, fiddle with it, take it off, put it on, take it off and discard it, get irritated by the air, get a new one, put it on, take it off... etc.

Yeah, that's still dozens of masks per employee. But the region has had multiple week-long bouts of dangerously smoky air from nearby wildfires in the past few years. Also, maybe they were counting on employees taking masks home for their families.

A 720K stockpile was a little overkill, but not that overkill, imo. Especially since once everyone in the region wants them (whether it be wildfire or pandemic), the suppliers can't supply everyone. There was a run on masks during the wildfires too.