[3M's South Dakota] plant had already ramped up production of respirator masks in response to demand from first responders battling wildfires in Australia and contending with a volcano in the Philippines. Now, Rehder told his charges, Aberdeen would shift to “surge capacity.” Idle machinery installed for precisely this purpose would be activated, and many of the plant’s 650 employees would immediately start working overtime. “We knew it wouldn’t be a two-week blip, it would be longer,” Rehder says. “But I had no idea.”
[3M] has been preparing for almost two decades. Coming out of the SARS epidemic of 2002-03, the company realized it wasn’t fully equipped to handle unexpected explosions of demand in the event of a crisis, or what it calls an “X factor.” It decided to build surge capacity into its respirator factories around the world.
Over the years, with X factors such as the Ebola panic and the H1N1 flu virus generating flash floods of demand, the company kept refining its emergency response.
[...]
3M can’t save the day on its own, but it’s promising a remarkably large contribution. The company has in two months doubled global production of N95 masks to about 100 million a month, and it’s planning to invest in new equipment to push annual mask production to 2 billion within 12 months. [...] Two days later, Roman said 3M would work with Ford Motor Co. to produce powered air purifying respirators, waist-mounted devices that blow air into helmets that shield wearers. Honeywell is also increasing N95 production, saying it will hire at least 500 people to expand capacity at a facility in Rhode Island.
[...]
3M had another built-in advantage: Unlike many companies that have moved production to low-cost countries, it sources the materials for its respirators near its assembly plants and serves customers reasonably close by. “We make respirators in China for the China market, we make respirators in Korea for a little more than the Korea market,” Roman says. Each plant can ship respirators anywhere—pretty important in a pandemic—but day to day, a plant doesn’t rely on distant vendors subject to tariffs or export bans.
[...]
In the U.S., too, prices for personal protective equipment are being driven up in what has become a grim marketplace. It’s unclear whether some distributors are withholding masks as demand rises, but states are clamoring for every mask they can scrounge and must compete against one another to secure them. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on March 23 that masks the state usually buys for 85¢ now cost $7.
3M says it hasn’t raised respirator prices and can’t control what happens after it sells its products to distributors. Roman wrote to U.S. Attorney General William Barr on March 24 to offer 3M’s help in rooting out medical device counterfeiting and price gouging.
My doc has told me that it would cost about $50 million and less than a week to make enough quality masks for every medical professional in the country. The fact that we have not done so is shameful.
My doc has told me that it would cost about $50 million and less than a week to make enough quality masks for every medical professional in the country.
Because they've worked in an ICU, socializes extensively with other doctors, and keep up with current medical research and supply information. P95 masks and other respirators are not sufficient on...
Because they've worked in an ICU, socializes extensively with other doctors, and keep up with current medical research and supply information.
P95 masks and other respirators are not sufficient on their own. They are not intended for extended wear. Laypeople buying them is dumb, as they must be properly fit-tested by another professional to insure they work as intended. Production and manufacturing is difficult, and scaling up usage for those not trained to use them is very hard.
By contrast, extremely basic face shields made of plastic can reduce risk of infection from coughs at close range by between 68% and 96% alone. Paired with a properly fitting resperator, infection chance drops to miniscule amounts.
Because this... ...is what you see in a lab under controlled conditions using calibrated mists containing research bacteria. In the real world we need people to wash their hands and to avoid going...
Because this...
can reduce risk of infection from coughs at close range by between 68% and 96% alone
...is what you see in a lab under controlled conditions using calibrated mists containing research bacteria.
In the real world we need people to wash their hands and to avoid going out unless they have no option. There's no evidence that masks help in real world use, and plenty that they hurt.
Hmm, what's the evidence that they hurt? I find it hard to believe that masks could hurt much because countries where people commonly wear masks seem to be doing better at flattening the curve....
Hmm, what's the evidence that they hurt?
I find it hard to believe that masks could hurt much because countries where people commonly wear masks seem to be doing better at flattening the curve. Maybe that's just correlation, but it's suggestive.
It's also hard to believe that it's worse than coughing on your arm.
It seems important to reserve the good masks for medical workers who need them, but I don't see the harm in homemade or improvised masks?
The best argument I've heard is that people will risk-compensate if they think they're protected, but we don't need to do that.
Anecdotal, but for the most part, I don't think a lot of people understand how to use masks in a way that would actually reduce their chances of infection. For example, if you don't fit it to your...
Anecdotal, but for the most part, I don't think a lot of people understand how to use masks in a way that would actually reduce their chances of infection. For example, if you don't fit it to your face correctly, it won't force the air through the filter and it's the mostly just a face decoration. Case in point: 2 weeks ago when I went to the grocery store, I passed by a customer who was wearing a face mask upside down. Also if you wear a mask and then touch the outside of it, you could have a pretty significant viral load that you're now depositing on everything you touch even if you yourself are not infected.
Yes, I have read elsewhere that n95 masks are not that easy to use. But we shouldn't use them anyway because medical workers need them more. There are other masks. And the face shield thing looks...
Yes, I have read elsewhere that n95 masks are not that easy to use. But we shouldn't use them anyway because medical workers need them more. There are other masks. And the face shield thing looks pretty easy, plus it's transparent, so less intimidating than a mask?
A bandana also seems easy to use. If there is a problem with viral load, wouldn't that also be true of your shirt? Couldn't you solve it by changing them more often, keeping them in a plastic bag, and washing them?
I don't believe that they would be a "face decoration". This seems like excessively binary thinking, like if they don't stop everything then they're useless? And even so, decorations reminding everyone that these are not normal times and we shouldn't stick with our normal habits don't seem like such a bad thing?
I suspect this has more to do with custom than with our excuses for doing or not doing things. Cultural inertia is pretty powerful. But I have a contrarian tendency and that's hardly foolproof either.
From the article:
[...]
[...]
[...]
My doc has told me that it would cost about $50 million and less than a week to make enough quality masks for every medical professional in the country.
The fact that we have not done so is shameful.
Because they've worked in an ICU, socializes extensively with other doctors, and keep up with current medical research and supply information.
P95 masks and other respirators are not sufficient on their own. They are not intended for extended wear. Laypeople buying them is dumb, as they must be properly fit-tested by another professional to insure they work as intended. Production and manufacturing is difficult, and scaling up usage for those not trained to use them is very hard.
By contrast, extremely basic face shields made of plastic can reduce risk of infection from coughs at close range by between 68% and 96% alone. Paired with a properly fitting resperator, infection chance drops to miniscule amounts.
These shields are extremely cheap and easy to manufacture. Here's what the look like: https://www.keysurgical.com/products/personal-protective-equipment/face-shields/4505
Huh. Why aren't we all wearing them?
Because this...
...is what you see in a lab under controlled conditions using calibrated mists containing research bacteria.
In the real world we need people to wash their hands and to avoid going out unless they have no option. There's no evidence that masks help in real world use, and plenty that they hurt.
Hmm, what's the evidence that they hurt?
I find it hard to believe that masks could hurt much because countries where people commonly wear masks seem to be doing better at flattening the curve. Maybe that's just correlation, but it's suggestive.
It's also hard to believe that it's worse than coughing on your arm.
It seems important to reserve the good masks for medical workers who need them, but I don't see the harm in homemade or improvised masks?
The best argument I've heard is that people will risk-compensate if they think they're protected, but we don't need to do that.
Anecdotal, but for the most part, I don't think a lot of people understand how to use masks in a way that would actually reduce their chances of infection. For example, if you don't fit it to your face correctly, it won't force the air through the filter and it's the mostly just a face decoration. Case in point: 2 weeks ago when I went to the grocery store, I passed by a customer who was wearing a face mask upside down. Also if you wear a mask and then touch the outside of it, you could have a pretty significant viral load that you're now depositing on everything you touch even if you yourself are not infected.
Yes, I have read elsewhere that n95 masks are not that easy to use. But we shouldn't use them anyway because medical workers need them more. There are other masks. And the face shield thing looks pretty easy, plus it's transparent, so less intimidating than a mask?
A bandana also seems easy to use. If there is a problem with viral load, wouldn't that also be true of your shirt? Couldn't you solve it by changing them more often, keeping them in a plastic bag, and washing them?
I don't believe that they would be a "face decoration". This seems like excessively binary thinking, like if they don't stop everything then they're useless? And even so, decorations reminding everyone that these are not normal times and we shouldn't stick with our normal habits don't seem like such a bad thing?
I suspect this has more to do with custom than with our excuses for doing or not doing things. Cultural inertia is pretty powerful. But I have a contrarian tendency and that's hardly foolproof either.