TUCKER, GA. (WECT) – The sign above the front door says Thread Beauty Spa. But waxings and facials have not happened inside the business in weeks. Owner Sanah Sayani had to close the doors in early March because of the coronavirus pandemic. But it wasn’t long before another door opened, breathing new life into that commercial space.
“It was a freak accident I would say,” said Sanah, a former WECT weekend morning news anchor who left the news business in 2015 to be closer to her family in Atlanta. “I was scrolling (through her Facebook feed) and saw a tutorial to make a mask.”
It happened about the same time the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said because of a shortage of protective equipment in some hospitals, healthcare workers on the front lines of treating the coronavirus pandemic could use scarves or bandanas for personal protection. Sanah messaged some friends in the healthcare industry upset about it, saying they needed proper equipment (PPE) to treat infected patients.
“I saw the tutorial, I read the article, said hey, ‘Maybe we can make our own’,” Sanah remembers telling herself. “I messaged a doctor friend in Dallas and she said, ‘Yes, we should all be wearing masks. Yes, the CDC is probably not recommending for everyone to wear a mask because there is a shortage!’. I said, ‘It can’t hurt to make masks and it can’t hurt to wear a mask!’ I just kind of had the idea, confirmed it with a couple doctor friends, they said, ‘Yes go for it’, and it just started. I did foresee that the CDC would eventually say wear a mask because other countries were already wearing it and it does no harm, so why not.”
