Comment by ardy42 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ardy42 | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

> Given how many people are currently unemployed - how is it that we can fail to ramp up our own ability to produce this needed equipment? There is no shortage of labor.

Labor isn't the only limiting factor:

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

> COVID-19 Has Caused A Shortage Of Face Masks. But They're Surprisingly Hard To Make

> ...

> Both the masks made for medical personnel and for consumer purchase require a once-obscure material called melt-blown fabric. It's an extremely fine mesh of synthetic polymer fibers that forms the critical inner filtration layer of a mask, allowing the wearer to breath while reducing the inflow of possible infectious particles...

> And there's now a global shortage of melt-blown fabric due to the increased demand for masks — and the difficulty in producing this material.

I think one of the hallmarks of great leadership is to inspire people to see beyond barriers. Melt-blown fabric is not likely to be the only or even the biggest hurdle.

Maybe it will take months/years to go from zero to production quantity/quality no matter how hard we try or how well we organize. And maybe by the time that production capacity is active the market will be flooded by PPE from China (let's hope). Yet I would still rather be over-prepared and with people actively productive compared to behind the ball with people sat at home.

Maybe I'm just tired of the government telling us to be patient while we continue to hear reports like this. I want someone to tell us how to be proactive.

Hospitals are looking themselves how to fill the gap while supply of PPE comes back. Here's a an example of a tutorial for masks made using readily available tools: https://enmed.tamu.edu/diymasks/

There are many other tutorials online from various sources which use different machines (sewing machine, 3d printers, etc), so people can improvise based on what they have.

The PDF shows detailed price breakdown for materials of ~$5/mask and estimates 10 minutes per mask, since of course it's diy, there's a lot of warning labels, but it's better than nothing. If people can produce ~40 masks per day using basic tools, this can scale based on the availability of raw materials and tools.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com