The Anxiety and Burden of Accepting Face Masks Sent From Home

I was overcome with guilt after my family sent me a box of 200 surgical masks from Hong Kong

Illustration: Gisella Tan

The box sat on my dining table for days with the neat rows of 200 disposable surgical masks tucked away, unused. They had survived the 6,890-mile trip from Hong Kong to my apartment in San Francisco, where I…