Elon Musk: Should Have 1000 Ventilators Next Week, 250k N95 Masks Tomorrow | Hacker News Reader

Elon Musk: Should Have 1000 Ventilators Next Week, 250k N95 Masks Tomorrow

cleantechnica.com

36 pointsvpj22 comments

You gotta love the the extremes that I always hear about only from either the USA or China. I know that most of Europe will never have a self made billionaire making 250k n95 masks in a matter of days, but then again we wont have so many people dieing or going completely broke from a few visits to the hospital which is going to be very common with coronavirus. I considered taking a FAANG job in SV which I guess helps avoid most of the issues everyone has with the USA but I cannot imagine being middle class with all the issues we keep hearing about like hospital bills, guns and shootings, homelessness, prisons, civil forfeiture etc.

While all the things you mentioned are real issues, they are most definitely the exception and not the rule. Quality of life in the United States is very high, overall, for the vast majority of people who live there.

Amancio Ortega, Spanish self made billionaire (started as shirts delivery boy at 13yo, now 6th in Forbes list), has announced he will deliver 300k masks per week, will use his huge worldwide logistic network to support the government provisioning, and will start producing protective vests in his factories.

I’m pretty sure they’re not making masks, they just have a stock of them. Paint shops usually use alot of them. SpaceX might be able to help with engineering and manufacturing of ventilators.

Yeah no way they're making 250k n95 masks when China is only able to produce 600k of them.

In France, Europe LVHM converted their Chanel No 5 factory to producing hand sanitizer in 72 hours.

https://www.ft.com/content/e9c2bae4-6909-11ea-800d-da70cff6e...

FWIW if youre at US FAANG none of those things happen, and you make way more than in europe for the cost of living amongst the americans

VW is looking at 3D printing ventilators.

With regard to the 250k masks, it sounds like they're just distributing the ones they already had, not manufacturing new ones.

"The masks include the lightweight ones that people like to wear in the hope of protection against coronavirus"

Love the subtle way of suggesting the effectiveness of those.

With the phrase, "in the hope"? That does not inspire confidence.

Masks work. We will all be wearing masks for months when they can finally distribute enough. In the meantime make your own mask and save the medical masks for health care workers.

Oh they totally do - it's just that everyone is more protected by the masks other people wear not the one they wear themselves.

According to npr there is a shortage of melt blown fabric to make the masks, and it takes six months to build the machine to produce such product. I'm skeptical of all these places claiming to produce masks, that they are actually the quality and performance they claim.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/16/8149292...

Melt-blown fabric is not a requirement. It's just what we have been using. It is good enough for the job, and it is really cheap if you already have the machines.

There are types of aerogel that are flexible. When created with embedded fiber for strength, it works great. Setting up the equipment would not be too difficult. The filtration is far better than with melt-blown fabric.

We have many more options if we don't insist on flexible fabric. Gas masks commonly use canister filters. With that style we can use a rigid filter. It could be sintered glass, sintered ceramic, sintered metal, metal foam, aerographene, aerographite, graphene foam, or diatomaceous earth. We could even go electronic, with a UV light.

Materials with high air flow resistance are usable if we add a blower. There is a doctor in China doing this in a makeshift way, with a HEPA filter on his hip and a plastic bag over his head. An advantage is that it protects the eyes, which are an infection path for the virus. Eye protection needs air flow to prevent fogging and because eyes actually require air.

If there's one good thing that comes out of this crisis, it will be that the medical infrastructure will vastly be more capable of handling future outbreaks.

Might trigger some rivalry with other prominent rich people and trigger more productive work and donations. Good for him.

I just realized Musk is probably doing this, in part, to keep the factories operational and seek favor with the political powers that be. I have nothing wrong with that, per se, I just find it interesting.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1241056851032043523?s=20

>>> That won’t work for our auto parts suppliers, so, no, our US factory can’t stay open

Humble words after the government needed to threaten police action before Tesla finally followed the shutdown order for their Fremont plant.

I hope he doesn't force people back to work at his factories until they have the masks they need to paint cars etc. that he is now giving away. He will have a shortage as well.

Somehow panic wasn't dumb

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