Regarding masks: The law changed a few days ago. Previous law was that 3M could only sell 5m masks/month to healthcare workers even though they produce 35M masks/month. This law was the main reason for the mask shortage to hospital workers. Since the law change, mask shortage to hospital workers should not be an issue for much longer.
https://www.washingtonpost.com
China makes 200 million masks per day. South Korea makes 10 million masks per day.
The US population is roughly 330 million (according to 2018 census). If the US ramps production to even half of China, we'd produce enough masks, one for each person in just 3-4 days.
IMO, gov needed to contract mask manufacturers to produce more masks 2 months ago. Still not too late. Can't rely on manufacturers to simple up production. They should have gov contracts to make motivate and ensure that their overproduction will not be in vain.
China has ramped their mask production to 200 million masks a day.
Had US government had the foresight and common sense to contract mask manufacturers to even produce half of what China is producing - let’s say 100 million masks, we could have had enough for everyone to have a mask in 3-4 days.
Universal masks for everyone (not only health care workers) together with hygiene protocol should be the way to “flatten the curve”. This would at the very least inhibit spread by those who have coronavirus but don’t know it yet (asymptomatic).
But instead, we’re having these mass shelter in place orders that are destroying our economy, killing businesses and destroying people’s livelihoods.
And I still haven’t heard of massive government contracts to mask manufacturers at the scale needed to provide masks for everyone.
China offered us lower prices, and the lower prices were great. But right now China isn’t selling us those low priced masks. And we do not need China to produce masks.
We know from basic economic theory that there are manufacturers who would either ramp up production or go into production if the demand increased. With China seemingly out of the US mask business for who knows how long there are also fewer available suppliers — another motivator.
Domestic manufacturers should be happy to take our money — it’s simply a matter of timing. We knew of the mask shortage at least by January. I know this, because I was following the news around then, and went to the local stores and saw with my own eyes that they were out of stock. I could only get them at Home Depot. Not Walgreens, not Target, not Wal Mart. Had we been contracting manufacturers to produce masks starting then, we wouldn’t be experiencing as many shortages as we are today, assuming it doesn’t take 2 months for pre-existing manufacturers to ramp up production.
The botched timing in ramping up domestic production in response to a known shortage is the biggest issue, not the fact that China hasn’t been taking new orders for going on 3 months.
> We know from basic economic theory that there are manufacturers who would either ramp up production or go into production if the demand increased.
I'd be hesitant to use Economics 101 theories as a way to model the real world. While they are intuitive theories there is a reason they are 101 theories and even "expert" economists are often wrong. :)
These lines of thought are often similar to how people point to evolutionary reasoning because of how intuitively the "survival of the fittest" explanation comes into play (esp. wrt the capitalist society we live in).
That’s like saying we shouldn’t use the theory of gravity to explain why objects drop because it doesn’t hold at the speed of light. Well, it’s a fundamental theory for a reason, and it holds up a whole lot of the time in practice. You don’t need quantum physics to know which direction your phone will go when you let it go.
But in any case, even tossing that basic fundamental economic theory aside, what about the rest of my comment? Is it not true that we would have more masks in production today if we started producing them in January?
If there was enough additional demand, you bet there would be more production. Let’s say someone in January is suddenly willing to write a 10 billion dollar check for 100,000 masks. Not one additional mask would be produced before March? Because people are scrambling to procure masks now. And additional masks are being produced and even donated.
"In an interview, Bowen said he could make 1 million masks a day if he ran his machines around the clock, a huge quantity for his firm but an amount that would barely make a dent in global demand. He’s hesitant, however, to ramp up production at the facility outside Fort Worth, scarred by the boom-bust mess that occurred after the swine flu pandemic in 2009."
Asymptomatic carriers are showing as a large contributor of spread. We should have a mandate for masks for everyone (since we don’t know who is a carrier or not) and government should contract manufacturers to ramp production ASAP to meet the demand.
China and South Korea has ramped productions and is allocating 2 masks per week per resident.
US has 330 million people. 2 per person is 660 million face masks.
China is currently producing 200 millions masks a day. If we ramp production to even half of that, 100 million masks a day, we can have 2 masks for everyone in less than a week.
There was an act passed (I don't remeber its name, but it was meant for situations like this) that allows government to force factories to produce needed materials. Yet government refused to use it, they refuse to invoke stay in place in remaining states. They blocked states from doing testing, bidding against states for supplies and cherry on top DOJ secretly asked if they can suspend constitutional rights to allow holding people in cells for unspecified time among other things. WTF, it's like they want this pandemic to be as bad as possible.
We already can see most countries working and flattening the infection curve, yet US is still growing exponentially. We are now #3 and looks like we will be #1 (surpassing China and Italy) before March ends.
My bad, last time I heard an expert talking about it that the act was created exactly for this kind of event and Trump was resisting invoking it to not affect private companies. I'm glad he changed his mind.
Still, I think he should stay at home in other states. LA county seems to assume it is beyond containment and now only tests people if that would affect the treatment.
I think a big thing that isn't being said is that the government is also attempting to manage civil unrest. There is an old saying about there being a gun behind every blade of grass in this country. We have a very different culture and risk situation than a place like China where they literally welded people's doors shut and let them starve to death.
I think they know certain things need to be done, but they have to also manage expectations and make enough of the population/media/state govt be "demanding" these enforced lock downs before it is really feasible.
Lastly, I think most companies are doing the right thing. 3M is cranking out industrial N95 masks as fast as they can since the govt dropped liability protection (since they are not rated for medical use). GM and others have offered to make ventilators. The defense production act only needs to be invoked if factories/suppliers are not doing the right thing. The specifics of the invocation haven't been announced yet, but I suspect one or more companies started misbehaving, and that resulted in invoking the act.
> We should have a mandate for masks for everyone (since we don’t know who is a carrier or not) and government should contract manufacturers to ramp production ASAP to meet the demand.
Absolutely, and this is true for all countries. Personal prophylaxis and distancing will have to become a natural part of our life if we want to get out of this before the eventual remedy happens. But the masks do not exist yet.
No government did this, even when months ago China was shutting down it's factories and locking down a hundred million people zero preparation was done by all of our politicians. My country ran out of masks two weeks ago and people are just wearing makeshift masks
China has ramped their face mask production to 200 million a DAY. And
CDC’s continued insistence that face masks don’t work is disingenuous at best. Leading way to a global recession at worst.
Had they changed their guidelines to saying that face masks can help inhibit spread at the very least, especially from asymptomatic carriers who are wearing masks, US gov could have contracted mask manufacturers to with millions of dollars worth of mask orders. Spurring then to produce masks, eliminating this shortage of masks.
Instead, gov plan has no mask protocol, so the only other option is a global shutdown of “non-essential businesses”. Causing an essential shutdown of the economy. The cost of which they have obviously not calculated.
Sorry, this is bullshit. Government needs to contract 3m and the like to make as many masks as they can, as fast as they can, ASAP.
They needed to have done this months ago. Instead of running a propaganda campaign that masks are supposedly not effective against coronavirus and that we should not buy them anyway because we need to save them for the hospital workers who really need them. Completely disingenuous.
It’s beyond frustrating to be told to conserve face masks in the face of a pandemic rather than to purchase contracts to ensure companies produce what we need.
China is currently making 200 million masks a day. In addition, China and South Korea attribute much of their success at containment of coronavirus to the use of masks.
Making masks available for all (like South Korea who is giving every citizen and resident an allotment of 2 face masks/week) + a mandate for all to wear face masks would do so much to curb this pandemic. But instead we’re running this crazy experiment of in essence shutting down our economy via mandatory business and company closures. Not thinking through the real long term damage and consequences of such actions. Unemployment. Social unrest. Destruction of business.
Some more food for thought. Jack Ma was able to secure and send 1 million face masks to the US already. If government won’t act, private citizens and foundations (I’m looking at you Bill Gates Foundation) can.
That'd be fantastic in a week or a month. ICUs in Washington and New York are running low on supply as we speak, any help now could buy a medical professional in these areas precious days.
Thank you for sharing this. I commend your courage. I had similar experiences to what you described. In my mid-30s, I sought out the best attachment therapist that I could find. My search was world-wide since I was willing to move to get treatment and me and my husband can work from anywhere.
I found a group in near Boston called the Attachment Institute of New England. Though they predominantly work with children, they agreed to treat me. It completely changed my life and allowed me to overcome and heal from my past. That was 5 years ago and since then, I’ve had children. I know I would not be the parent I am without their help. I only wish I could somehow replicate what they did for me to help more people as I know most people don’t have the luxury of finances and time to do what I was able to do.
My first child is almost 8 weeks old & I'm incredibly grateful for the work myself and my partner have done on ourselves leading up to this point.
Would you be willing to connect outside of this thread to talk about your treatment? I'm writing a book centered on a framework for self programming I'm designing and would love to inform it with the experiences of others. I'm convinced we can mathematically define the human system in a computational/programmatic way and use computer science to figure out language constructs resulting in scripts to follow for achieving what we want our minds/bodies/brains to do (or configuring them however we want). I've been "programming" myself in this way for 2 years and have experienced a lot of rapid change, as a result. I'm hoping the book will help people do the same things you & I have accomplished, but in ways they can adapt to their daily lives so they don't have to take a break from life.
The book will only be sold if there's a structure in place such that one purchase funds several free copies or freely helping others in some financial way. I don't want to profit from its sale.
For those who are believers, there is a no-cost ministry in Tulsa, OK (God's ER, godser.us) that helps people work through trauma by similar means. They also have means of remote ministry. My daughter no longer registers on the autism spectrum after working with this ministry. I have friends that have worked through some heavy things in their past and now have high degrees of emotional function.
China makes 200 million masks per day. South Korea makes 10 million masks per day.
The US population is roughly 330 million (according to 2018 census). If the US ramps production to even half of China, we'd produce enough masks, one for each person in just 3-4 days.
IMO, gov needed to contract mask manufacturers to produce more masks 2 months ago. Still not too late. Can't rely on manufacturers to simple up production. They should have gov contracts to make motivate and ensure that their overproduction will not be in vain.