For all your carpentry/pandemic needs

There was a small crowd gathered around the flu prevention corner at DIY mecca Tokyu Hands in Shibuya on Friday, peppering the two patient staffers with questions. One nervous, heavily made up older woman already holding two boxes of masks was asking when the next shipment would arrive. (6:30 pm.) And the next after that? (Long inhale. Hard to say. Could be... a while.)
A few people were turning over the $30 boxed sets of full-body protection suit sets (gloves, goggles, jumpsuits, respirator liners).

I am a little bit confused about particle masks as protection against viruses. Sure, they would stop globs and splatters from going straight into the flu holes on your face, but could they really stop actual little viruses from worming in? They aren't on 3M's page of health protection goods, though they are mentioned, if fuzzily, on their PDF about what kind of gear the CDC recommends using if you have to intubate someone who's infected.
3M does list similar respirators under Pandemic Preparation - Swine Flu, explaining that they "can be used during laser surgery, electrocautery and other procedures using powered medical instruments to help reduce wearer exposure to airborne particles (plume, smoke) generated during these procedures." Uh huh. And they are "fluid resistant to help reduce potential exposure of the wearer to the spray, spatter and aerosol of blood and body fluids." On a good day, this will not apply to my morning commute.

I asked the Tokyu Hands guy how the particle masks stacked up behind the about pandemic influenza infographics were related to preventing the flu. "Well, basically," he said, "these are dust masks. If you want to really prevent the spread of disease, those medical masks would be better. " So, still, I don't know. But I do know where you can get a full body Tyvek suit, dry shampoo, and a chemical toilet so you can batten down the hatches during the coming plague.
Especially if it's a plague of wood shavings.