Brian Kolfage, a Florida military veteran, formed a business called America First Medical, which offers on its website and in social media pitches to broker large-volume sales of high-grade masks known as N95s.
Though he hasn’t yet found buyers, Kolfage says he’s found masks all over the world, including stockpiles hidden away in warehouses in Japan and Eastern Europe.
Kolfage aims to be one of the new mask middlemen. These middlemen described a wild marketplace, in which they seek to quickly connect sellers and buyers before competitors can move in and sell stockpiles out from under them. But the frenzy also has broken down standard quality controls, opening the market to an influx of masks of uncertain origin and effectiveness.
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