Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Cole is on a roll !

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

The words do not have to be perfect.

“Let’s not pretend [Trump] wants to engage in high-minded discourse.”

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Issues: Finding, or Making, Masks

COVID-19 Issues: Finding, or Making, Masks

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I don’t have any more details yet either, but I trust my junior Senator:


… US mask manufacturers say they are experiencing unprecedented demand. With the pandemic and trade restrictions pressuring already-overwhelmed global supply chains, companies are struggling to keep up. Like much of the mask manufacturing industry, industrial giant 3M has been ramping up production since January—including expanding the output of its US based factories, hosting job fairs, and hiring employees on the spot. Yet some US hospitals are still unable to obtain new shipments of surgical masks and N95 respirators.

“There’s a really, really high demand for respirators and really all other products being used in response to the coronavirus to help treat and protect people,” Jennifer Ehrlich, communications manager for 3M told WIRED. “It’s more demand than any one company can supply, and we expect it to remain high for the foreseeable future.”

One reason is that over the last two decades China has become the primary manufacturer for the world’s masks and respirators. When the virus swept through China in late 2019 and early 2020, the country’s increased need for masks dealt a double whammy to the global supply. The US is particularly reliant on China for masks and other medical gear. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, 95 percent of surgical masks and 70 percent of respirators used in the US are made overseas, and China is one of the biggest producers.

“We were already in the middle of a bad flu season, and now we’re having a pandemic in the middle of the flu. Couple that with with American hospitals gearing up, people panic buying, and China now cutting off a good portion of the masks they send to the US—it’s a perfect storm,” says Bowen.

That’s led to a lot of hard decisions for manufacturers. Faced with hundreds of millions of orders a day, and a limited number of masks, Prestige Ameritech decided to sell only to hospitals, rather than the general public, and has prioritized working with medical centers that will sign five-year contracts, to reduce the likelihood that the company will have to lay off all its new employees once the pandemic subsides.

The policy is rooted in history. The last time the country faced a comparable mask shortage was during the 2009 H1N1 outbreak. To meet increased demand, Prestige Ameritech hired hundreds of new employees and expanded its manufacturing capabilities. But after the outbreak died down, Bowen says that most hospitals that had relied on Prestige Ameritech went back to Chinese suppliers, which typically sell masks and respirators for less than it costs him to produce.

In 2011, after the H1N1 pandemic ended, we had to lay off 150 people,” he recalls. “One hundred fifty people that saved a lot of hospitals from closing their doors were rewarded by losing their jobs. And that’s not going to happen again.”

Bowen says that about a fourth of the calls and emails he receives are from people who fell victim to scammers and fraudsters trying to profit off of the dearth of masks for ordinary people. 3M also says it has seen a sizable number of fraud cases in the wake of the pandemic. Bowen says that he regularly receives multiple messages a day from people who paid significantly higher than market rate prices on Amazon or eBay for supposedly new masks, only to find that the products were decades old and effectively unusable…

Reader Interactions

51Comments

  2. 2.

    Another Scott

    Relatedly, BlueVirginia.us:

    The Fatalistic View From an ER Nurse on What’s Ahead
    By Kellen Squire – March 19, 2020
    by Kellen Squire, RN

    Being an ER Nurse, a lot of people have asked me what I think about COVID-19. I almost inevitably tell them- first and foremost- that I really can’t overstate how much of a problem it is that we don’t have enough personal protective equipment (PPE).

    Sure, we don’t have enough ventilators. Frick, forget ventilators, I don’t think we have enough drugs to keep the number of patients we’re anticipating sedated. Imagine having a tube jammed down your throat and potentially being conscious the whole time- and these COVID patients are intubated for days; weeks. Probably closest approximation I can think of to what Hell would be like.

    But I always come back to PPE, and our complete lack of the volume we need. That shortage means with almost certainty my colleagues and I are going to be exposed to COVID-19… and healthcare workers are one of the groups at the most risk of being put in the ICU and/or dying, because we’re directly exposed to huge viral loads when we’re with these very sick patients.

    That means we’re going to have to change a lot of what we do. We’re already being told that unless we have “an aerosolizing procedure” to do (something that’ll cause a patient to spew a fine mist of pure virus particles), we use the bare minimum of PPE. Not because of any discovery that less protection is appropriate- because we just don’t have enough. Surgical masks, not N95 masks. Normal neoprene gloves. Maaaybe a paper gown a couple millimeters thick. Lots of soap and water. And prayer.

    For the big stuff, like when we intubate patients- putting a breathing tube down their throat to put them on a ventilator- we need to be garbed up, and do the procedure verrrryy carefully. Which is great… as long as our limited supply of PPE lasts for those procedures… and as long as nobody needs emergent intervention- like, they’re dying, right there, and we have to run to save them. Because getting fully gowned up can take as long as 5 to 10 minutes, to do it by the book.

    […]

    In the end, though, we’re just going to say “Fuck it” and save the patient however we can. Young, old, it doesn’t matter. We’re going to do whatever it takes.

    And expose ourselves in the process. And not just a little exposure, like if you accidentally touch a doorknob with someone’s COVID snot on it. I’m talking a viral load potentially seven orders of magnitude higher– the difference between drinking out of a water fountain versus a firehose.

    […]

    Click over and read the whole thing.

    :-(

    Grr….

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  4. 4.

    HumboldtBlue

    I just got back from a trip to Urgent Care. My dentist is closed and I have an infected tooth. The first thing they did at UC was hand me a face mask and a pair of gloves to put on.

    At least got a prescription for antibiotics and made sure to tell the folks at Urgent Care and at the pharmacy how much we appreciate their service during a very difficult period. Poor pharmacy tech looked like she hadn’t slept in days.

    County health department holding a press conference now, shelter in place at midnight.

  7. 7.

    Ken

    @Johnny Gentle (famous crooner): Someone in a BJ comment thread a few days ago said (or perhaps reposted a tweet) that late-stage capitalism under stress looks a lot like the failed communist states – the ones we used to mock for not being able to keep toilet paper and necessary medicines in stock.

  8. 8.

    Mnemosyne

    Looking at that chart, it may be time for quilters to get to work since “tea towel” fabric is probably pretty darn close to the cotton fabrics that quilters use. ?

  9. 9.

    Mary G

    Speaking of profiteering:

    NEW: After assuring the public about the government’s coronavirus preparedness, Senate Intel chair Richard Burr, in one day, sold off up to $1.6 million is stock.

    A week later, the market began its fall.

    His committee was receiving daily briefings.https://t.co/LlMDnKnYoQ
    — Robert Faturechi (@RobertFaturechi) March 19, 2020

    We’re going to need a bigger jail.

  10. 10.

    Elizabelle

    Luxury perfume and soap manufacturers in France (those frogs) are now making hand sanitizer, which they will GIVE to the French government.

    Some people in the government (career people, not the god-awful political appointees) might have suspected an epidemic was afoot in November, and certainly December. With a better administration, we could already have supplies of masks and sanitizer and vital medicines in the pipeline.

    Fuck Trump, and fuck all the fuckwits he brought in with him.

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    @Mary G:   And more on Richard Burr:  he was warning people in private about the scope of the pandemic on the way.

    Could not open his mouth in public on the matter, though.  Someone at a February 27 engagement leaked the tape to NPR.

  12. 12.

    Mary G

    Remember how you used to call your elected officials?

    You need to do it NOW.

    We need Personal Protective Equipment in the hospital.If we don’t get it, either we

    a) don’t take care of you or

    b) take care of you and get sick & don’t take care of you.

    Let’s avoid that. 1/x

    — Chavi Eve Karkowsky MD (@ChaviKar) March 19, 2020

  13. 13.

    Uncle Cosmo

    Now watch Jar Jar Kush go rushing over there with a sackful of white bandanas with “3D” printed on them in black Sharpie…

  14. 14.

    Mary G

    @Mary G:

     

    We have only a few weeks of supplies left — a lot of docs are working with suboptimal protection already. And the numbers are only going to go up, and up and up. 2/Please call the White House, the Senate, the House, your local governance. Then call them again. 3/— Chavi Eve Karkowsky MD (@ChaviKar) March 19, 2020

  17. 17.

    Martin

    Italy continues to look better. Fewer fatalities today than yesterday, which hopefully becomes a trend. But we’ve seen that before as there are always challenges with collecting that kind of information. I was expecting 3550 total deaths today, and that was accounting for the trend in fewer deaths, and they came in closer to 3400. Old trend would have them at 4100 by today.

    That said, Italy still believes they need to tighten their restrictions down, so I’m guessing they’re seeing evidence that it’s still not slowing enough.

  18. 18.

    Mary G

    Let’s try this again, @realdonaldtrump:

    Hospitals are already running out of ventilators and beds. Nurses are using bandanas as masks.
    If you’ve already ordered more with the Defense Production Act, tell us now.
    If you haven’t, you’re failing to lead and failing Americans.
    — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 19, 2020

  19. 19.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @NotMax: “MAGA masks! Now only $99.95 a dozen! Plus grifting and handling.”

    FTFY! (And I bet they’d ship 10 a pack & claim any complainers had miscounted. Bastards.)

  21. 21.

    debbie

    Do they know if the material used for 3D printing will have no toxicity issues for the wearers?

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    NPR: Intelligence Chairman Raised Virus Alarms Weeks Ago, Secret Recording Shows

    [Richard Burr, the] chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee warned a small group of well-connected constituents three weeks ago to prepare for dire economic and societal effects of the coronavirus, according to a secret recording obtained by NPR. The remarks … were more stark than any he had delivered in more public forums.

    On Feb. 27, [US had 15 confirmed cases], President Trump was tamping down fears and suggesting that the virus could be seasonal. “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle. It will disappear,” the president said then, before adding, “it could get worse before it gets better. It could maybe go away. We’ll see what happens.”

    On that same day, Burr [spoke at a luncheon in DC for “The Tar Heel Circle” of NC business leaders] and …. delivered a much more alarming message.

    “There’s one thing that I can tell you about this: It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history,” he said, according to a secret recording of the remarks obtained by NPR. “It is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic.”

    The message Burr delivered to the group was dire. Thirteen days before the State Department began to warn against travel to Europe, and 15 days before the Trump administration banned European travelers, Burr warned those in the room to reconsider.

    “Every company should be cognizant of the fact that you may have to alter your travel. You may have to look at your employees and judge whether the trip they’re making to Europe is essential or whether it can be done on video conference. Why risk it?” Burr said.

    Sixteen days before North Carolina closed its schools over the threat of the coronavirus, Burr warned it could happen.

    “There will be, I’m sure, times that communities, probably some in North Carolina, have a transmission rate where they say, ‘Let’s close schools for two weeks. Everybody stay home,’ ” he said.

    And Burr invoked the possibility that the military might be mobilized to combat the coronavirus. Only now, three weeks later, is the public learning of that prospect.

    “We’re going to send a military hospital there; it’s going to be in tents and going to be set up on the ground somewhere,” Burr said at the luncheon. “It’s going to be a decision the president and DOD make. And we’re going to have medical professionals supplemented by local staff to treat the people that need treatment.”

    Burr …. helped to write the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA), which forms the framework for the federal response.

    But in his public comments about the threat of COVID-19, Burr never offered the kind of precise warning that he delivered to the small group of his constituents.

    Because Burr knew about this and did not want to go against the vindictive Trump. Burr has already announced he is retiring in 2022.

  25. 25.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax:

    “MAGA masks! Now only $99.95 a dozen! Plus shipping and handling.”

    //

    And they turn out to be Dump’s fascist baseball caps with yarn tied to them, because he’s a grifting conman.

  26. 26.

    NotMax

    Anyone else see this?

    Harvest Christian Fellowship founder Greg Laurie told McClatchy he asked God for divine intervention on the National Day of Prayer.

    “We saw with the rapid spread of coronavirus, we needed supernatural help, because this is something that cannot be solved with a purely human solution,” Laurie said.

    Harvest says its churches in southern California and Hawaii have 15,000 collective members. Laurie has met with Trump at the White House and was one of the faith leaders on last week’s call. Source

  27. 27.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @WereBear: Couldn’t organize a 2-car funeral if you spotted them the hearse. (Seems more à propos in our Current Diseasiness.)

  30. 30.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Uncle Cosmo: @Mary G: 

    ‘Round-the-clock hangings.  The sea levels will rise from how many of these fuckers, and Nazi trash from the “Border Patrol”, we throw next to bin Laden.

  31. 31.

    Elie

    Folks, we are going to have to stop being polite and demonstrate, agitate and aggravate. This polite press conference acceptance and butt kissing has to stop NOW

  32. 32.

    Kattails

    curious about wool, since it’s very fuzzy but may not be a fine enough fiber. Silk is very fine, but generally woven as a thin fabric. What about cotton-wool blend batting? If you could breathe through it.

    Going to call the state, which has it’s own brand of vodka, and suggest that they do like the private distiller has done and gear it over to hand sanitizer.  Obviously the distiller is jobbed out, but I don’t see why this could not be done.

  33. 33.

    hueyplong

    To the extent the history of this time isn’t written by Trumpers, Burr will not come off too well.  He weasel-fucked the investigations every step of the way and then does this shit during the pandemic’s early stages.

    Making him pay will for me be a litmus test of the next regime’s ability to make sure all Americans learn lessons about this era.

  34. 34.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    @Mnemosyne: I am a member of an online sewing forum (patternreview.com) and lately there have been a number of threads about how to make face masks, appropriate materials, patterns and so forth. Just this week a doctor posted requesting help with making not just masks but also other ppe like gowns. A lot of people want to step up and help, we just need guidance in terms of what can be done to help.

  35. 35.

    Barbara

    I just bought a lifetime supply of Miele vacuum cleaner bags.  Anyone who wants them can have them.

  36. 36.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Elie: But but the press doesn’t get the access if they start yelling, “Fuck you, you incompetent, shithead, mobster manchildren!”

  37. 37.

    Elizabelle

    On February 7, Richard Burr and Lamar Alexander wrote this op ed for Fox News.

     
    Sen. Alexander & Sen. Burr: Coronavirus prevention steps the U.S. government is taking to protect you

    …. Thankfully, the United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus, in large part due to the work of the Senate Health Committee, Congress, and the Trump Administration.

    The work of Congress and the administration has allowed U.S. public health officials to move swiftly and decisively in the last few weeks.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with airport security and Customs and Border Protection officials, are screening incoming passengers at airports as they arrive in the United States from China. [BUT THEY NEVER SCREENED PASSENGERS ARRIVING FROM EUROPE ONCE IT WAS OBVIOUS COVID19 WAS THERE, TOO.] … Health and Human Services (HHS) is training state and local health departments on the symptoms of the coronavirus. The CDC has developed a diagnostic test that detects coronavirus infections and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is prepared to expedite its review. [ALTHOUGH TRUMP PASSED ON AN AVAILABLE AND EFFECTIVE TEST FROM THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION.] The White House has convened a Coronavirus Task Force [MIKE PENCE!], HHS has declared a public health emergency for the U.S. to help state and locals with the response efforts, and the National Institutes of Health, along with drug manufacturers, are expediting the development of a vaccine. [DUE IN MAYBE 18 MONTHS, UNLESS WE ARE UNCOMMONLY LUCKY.]

    …. article concludes:

    No matter the outbreak or threat, Congress and the federal government have been vigilant in identifying gaps in its readiness efforts and improving its response capabilities.

    The public health preparedness and response framework that Congress has put in place and that the Trump Administration is actively implementing today is helping to protect Americans. Over the years, this framework has been designed to be flexible and innovative so that we are not only ready to face the coronavirus today but new public health threats in the future.

    How did that work out? Sixteen days later, Burr is warning the Tar Heel Circle — privately — of what the US can actually expect.

  39. 39.

    p.a.

    Burr up in 2022.

    Saw the study on ersatz mask materials.  HEPA vacuum bags and tea towels were very effective (assuming proper fit) when double layered; the issue then is they really cut down airflow in that config.

  41. 41.

    Elizabelle

    @debbie:   Burr did not want to call Trump and his flying monkeys down on his well-protected head.

    I wonder how many other Senators dumped stocks before the public realized what was already underway with the pandemic.  We could investigate that.  Eventually, we should.

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    Oh.  John Cole has just put up a blogpost on that very NPR report.  Next thread.

  44. 44.

    JeanneT

    Put this in an earlier thread, but might be worth posting again.  There’s a US fabric making company that has appropriate cloth to use to make reusable layered masks.  They have an article about the options on their blog:  https://www.wazoodle.com/blog/face-mask-fabrics/

    It sounds like from the research noted up above, that 3 layers might not be necessary.  You can find a pattern for making masks here and doubtless other places around the web.  These patterns could easily be used with the tea towel fabric that does a decent filtering job.

  46. 46.

    Kattails

    @Kattails: Update, just spoke with the receptionist at HR and she said she’d heard on local news that 2 or 3 small distillers in the state were already stepping up to do this.

  47. 47.

    cckids

    Seattle area hospitals put out a plea on FB for people/businesses to donate any unused masks; drop them off at any ER. That’s how goddamn desperate it is here.

  48. 48.

    Feathers

    The pandemic documentary series on Netflix showed the woman in charge of NYC’s infectious diseases response team. She participated in a training with doctors and nurses. She insisted that they take the time to properly gown up. Nurse was having none of it. We are trained to go in and save our patient, no matter what. The infectious diseases lady was trying to impress on them that in a pandemic the most important thing was to keep themselves alive, because there would be more patients coming.

    Must confess, I got a bit impatient at an article where the medical personnel were talking about having to swap out for a new mask every time they took it off to talk to someone or have a sip of water. I was thinking that they did not have that many masks to burn through and that they were in far less danger of infection than they would be in a few weeks.

  49. 49.

    Feathers

    @Mnemosyne: I’ve used tea towel fabric. It’s thicker, with a rougher texture. Kevin Drum’s chart talks about cotton mix, but doesn’t say what kind. Linen is ranked high, I wonder if they are talking about something like Kaufman’s Essex blend, which is 55% linen, 45% cotton and about the weight of the tea towel fabric. I actually have a sizeable stash of that, probably 8 yards or so. Was going to make myself several pairs of pants, but if that’s the fabric, I’ll have to start on that.

  50. 50.

    Martin

    BofA has just announced that borrowers can pause mortgage payments and credit card payments. Hopefully this will trigger a federal move.

  51. 51.

    Procopius

    @Martin:

    China was making 200M a day before this. They have the supply chain. We don’t.

    I hope you’re not blaming the Chinese for this state of affairs. You know, almost all spare parts for our military equipment come from China, too, because “lowest bidder” rules and political decisions. Despite the enormous prices they charge us for drugs in America, most of them are actually manufactured in China at a low cost. In fact, if the supply lines (container ships) from China are shut down, America simply cannot switch over to make the stuff any more. Example: Apple uses a special screw on one of their tablets so that people can’t open them up to repair them. They were going to move assembly of that tablet to a plant in Texas. Found that they can’t, because no American manufacturer is capable of making that screw.

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