Umm, perhaps I'm mistaken, but I'm fairly certain that, at least in the US, it's always been fairly easy to obtain N95 masks, up until the pandemic. I realized I had a box of them lying around which my ex-girlfriend had purchased for painting.
Anecdotally, for me I didn't watch it religiously, but I would watch anytime there was a guest that I liked or found interesting. I haven't watched a single show since he moved to Spotify.