A steady stream of people responded to my story on Thursday about a government panel of medical experts reporting that the standard paper surgical mask will do little or nothing to protect healthcare workers and everyone else from breathing in the H1N1 virus.

Photo from Nat. Hosp. Recruiters

The panel from the Institute of Medicine and scientists at the CDC and NIOSH recommended a disposable respirator called the N95. That mask, when properly fitted, has filters that can block about 95 percent of the flu virus.

But where can these magic masks be bought?

“I figure we need 20,000 N95s or more to make it through the three or four months of the flu season, and my suppliers just laughed at my request,” wrote a woman who said she purchases supplies for fire, police and paramedics in a northern, mid-sized California community that she did not identify.

I thought that 20,000 masks for emergency services in one town sounded high, but two government physicians – one in Atlanta and the other in DC – told me yesterday that it sounded right on.

In fact, both MDs said that billions of N95s will be needed this flu season.

Think about the numbers. Counting everyone from first responders to the staffs of all hospitals, clinics, doc-in-the-boxes and nursing homes, there are an estimated 10 million healthcare workers in the U.S.

Each will use between two and four masks a shift. It could be six or eight if you work in an ER or in a ground or air ambulance, according to a study conducted for Homeland Security.  10 million times four or more each day: that’s 40 million a day times three or four months of high contagion.  That does add up.

But what about everyone else?

Three others who called or e-mailed me said they were  school nurses on the frontlines of the flu battle. They said that they had none of the recommended masks, and they had no indication from school supervisors that they would be supplied.

And, of course, we have to consider the teachers, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, and the list goes on and on.

For the hell of it, I contacted five safety and medical equipment suppliers on the Internet. Two said they still had the N95s, but delivery would take “several weeks.” One said he was only selling to his regular customers. Two others said they were sold out and didn’t know when new supplies would arrive.

“We’re waiting to see if the masks they’re making in China are any good,” one volunteered.

A consultant for the World Health Organization told me Friday that there are significant shortages of the masks in India, Pakistan and several other countries and “profiteering is becoming a growing concern along several international supply lines.”