The pandemic is almost a year old now. Why hasn’t a company mass produced what seems like a relatively simple device for the masses?
The pandemic is almost a year old now. Why hasn’t a company mass produced what seems like a relatively simple device for the masses?
Because nobody wants to make major infrastructure investments for a product that nobody will be using 6 months from now. There was a one year spike in demand, soon it will be back to normal.
enough already wrote:
Because nobody wants to make major infrastructure investments for a product that nobody will be using 6 months from now. There was a one year spike in demand, soon it will be back to normal.
Are you kidding? It would cost very little and would be in great demand worldwide.... It would be like printing money.
True, but these are the only masks which actually protect you and others. Oh well.
coach henry wrote:
Yusef Scummm wrote:
Are you kidding? It would cost very little and would be in great demand worldwide.... It would be like printing money.
Biden and Obama inherited 10 million masks from Bush 43. They depleted them all. The blood on 10s of thousands Americans are on their hands. Disgusting people.
Doubtful.
FYI - Your obese orange candidate lost the election, lost every appeal, and will lose the right to run again when he’s impeached a second time. Oh, yeah.... he lost his hair too... back in the 80s. Strands can still probably found on Epstein’s island.
Yusef Scummm wrote:
The pandemic is almost a year old now. Why hasn’t a company mass produced what seems like a relatively simple device for the masses?
N95 masks are a 3M product. 3M is an international conglomerate. Not just any company can make them. 3M makes and sells N95 masks. Excessive inventory forces corporations to go bankrupt and out of business. Call your Republican U.S. Congressperson and tell your U.S. Congressperson you want Congress to allocate funds for N95 masks. You cannot ask 3M to produce enough masks then leave 3M stuck with millions of masks no one will want in a couple of years. 3M needs a guaranteed contract. As another poster stated, 6 months from now Rand Paul & Ted Cruz will be on Senate floor yelling and screaming about all the money Congress wasted on Democrat masks from a Democrat state.
So, 3M is the problem? Come on.... if that’s the case, people should be at their factories burning them to the ground each and every day.
Similar masks could be made and distributed, considering the rare circumstance of a worldwide pandemic.
They can and they have, it's just not an american company like 99% of everything else not made here?
$1 per mask (free shipping/pickup too)
https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/6528612/Powecom-KN95-Face-Masks-Adult-One/
CDC tested/approved
Wow! Point your anger elsewhere. It was an Executive Branch decision and Mitch McConnell issue. Did Trump ask McConnell to vote yes on covid-19 3 trillion dollar bill U.S. House passed? U.S. House passed a 3 trillion dollar covid-19 bill this summer. Burn down 3M. You are real bright.
you dont know anything about the constitution, moron. you can be impeached a million times and still run, only if you are convicted is when you are ineligible to run. stop attacking others before you grasp the basic fundamentals of the constitution learned in 8th grade history.
calisucks wrote:
you dont know anything about the constitution, moron. you can be impeached a million times and still run, only if you are convicted is when you are ineligible to run. stop attacking others before you grasp the basic fundamentals of the constitution learned in 8th grade history.
You too might want to read up on the constitution. Just because the Senate convicts and removes from office a person does not disqualify that person from running for office again. After a conviction the Senate would need to have a separate vote on whether that person is disqualified from ever seeking office again. Without that disqualification vote the person who has been convicted and removed from office can again run and hold office.
2, 3-ply disposable masks is essentially the same (if not actually one layer better) as a N95 or KN95 mask. One can get 3-ply masks extremely easily for less than a dime a piece (or for free if you walk into a Walmart without a mask). N95 masks early in the pandemic were selling for $7 a pop. The N95 designation is 5 layers of 90% effective media. 3-ply's are 3 layers of essentially 90% effective media. N95 and KN95 masks seal a little better (if they are sized correctly) would be the only difference. Quite honestly, a single 3-ply is more than sufficient for everyday scenarios. Cloth masks are not nearly as effective, but are okay for most daily uses. The only place where they are insufficient is where people cannot maintain adequate social distance (ie. public transportation, meeting rooms, etc.). KN95 masks are widely available for about $1.00 a piece now. So, $1 a piece KN95 masks or 2, $0.10 a piece 3-ply disposable masks are both more than sufficient and are widely available for any who are concerned.
Yusef Scummm wrote:
enough already wrote:
Because nobody wants to make major infrastructure investments for a product that nobody will be using 6 months from now. There was a one year spike in demand, soon it will be back to normal.
Are you kidding? It would cost very little and would be in great demand worldwide.... It would be like printing money.
Than just produce them yourself if it's that easy.
N95 masks are a very specific mask design that has FDA approval for medical use. They are made out of a non-woven polypropylene fabric that uses an electrostatic charge to attract and capture particles. The machinery needed to make N95 masks costs about $1 mil, take about 4 months to manufacture and is able to produce thousands of masks a week. The machinery is highly specialized. You cannot retool or retrofit other equipment.
The US has not been able to even meet demand in the healthcare sector for N95 masks. The masks are supposed to be single use and healthcare workers should be using several new masks each shift. Instead, many healthcare workers are using the same mask for several days. Double masking has been an innovation in the healthcare sector to try to get more use out of the N95s.
The Trump administration did absolutely nothing to boost N95 production. It was clear by March of 2020 that worldwide demand for N95s was going to completely outstrip the ability of the private sector to respond. The US should have invoked the defense production act to develop a domestic N95 manufacturing so we would not have to compete with the rest of the world for production from Asia. Compared to the kind of money that has been given out in PPP loans and Fed liquidity measures, the money needed to build US N95 manufacturing capacity would have been pennies on the dollar. But we did not do that because that would have been SOCIALISM (cue organ playing Bach fugue).
Obviously, private companies are reticent to invest in the equipment because the demand for N95s will collapse once vaccines get the virus under control.
Biden has invoked the defense production act but is only using it to try to ease supply chain issues. At this point, it may be too late to make a difference as any big push to expand production will not yield increased supply until this summer at the earliest.
The KN95 masks are not FDA approved and have no regulatory oversight. Anyone can slap together some fabric and call it a KN95 mask. Testing of widely available KN95 masks has shown that many are complete crap and are no better than the cloth masks that your mother in law is selling on Etsy. The KN95 made in S. Korea are generally very good. If you are going to buy KN95s, look for the ones made in S. Korea.
Best thing to do right now is to buy a high quality reusable mask like the Livinguard masks and double it up with a good KN95 or a surgical mask. The UK variant may be able to defeat cloth masks, bandanas and single ply neck gaiters. There is currently zero chance that N95 masks will be available to the general public for the foreseeable future.
Gordon Gekko wrote:
Yusef Scummm wrote:
Are you kidding? It would cost very little and would be in great demand worldwide.... It would be like printing money.
Than just produce them yourself if it's that easy.
Well, evidently I can’t as my last name doesn’t end with the letter M.
That and I don’t have a spare production factory on my property......dummy.
How many healthcare workers do we have here? In almost a year’s time the demand couldn’t be met? Not believing that for a second....
It is an international market with most of the production coming out of Asia. The US has very little domestic capacity. So, we have to go out and get in line with every other country to buy N95s. Global demand increased by over 500% at the outset of the pandemic and has never been able to expand fast enough to generate enough supply to meet demand.
Looks like you missed an opportunity to mass produce these masks.
S&P 500 down today 98.85 points or down 2.57%. 3M or N.Y.S.E. MMM up today 10.70 or up 6.08% (not considering after hour trading).