So how come other countries can amp mask production, but not the USA? Has the USA become some kind of banana republic that can't make much of anything anymore? What's going on?
All Americans seem to do is make excuses, while other nations get to work and build stuff. Lots of stuff.
Instead of getting to work building supplies so they can do things with proven efficacy, the USA just keeps pretending that a magic cure will make getting to work unnecessary. Contact tracing works. Its standard outbreak protocol that has worked many times before. Supplies are needed to implement it.
We have an EPA... building codes...the usual red tape.
Now if it is only a bunch of sewing machines and a flat floor...two to three days. But that's if it's an already built warehouse. Fire alarm, restrooms, air handlers, plumbing, and lighting in place.
But it won't compete price wise...
We use robots here for a lot of manufacturing process.
Safer, faster, and less troublesome with showing up to work on time.
But from the ground up...three years. And we don't have the facilities needed to do this.
Found any toilet paper in the grocery store?
Because those Mills that make it run 24/7. The paper Mills that can make it have to retool for making it...that takes a couple weeks and is a lot of money for a low return. ($500K est)
But the actual usage hasn't changed...so the profit of making more isn't there.
Same thing with masks. Has to be able to pay for itself in five years. That's going to take running just like a paper mill. And then we are talking about steralization of them before plastic sealed. Shipping to distribution points... getting inserted into existing supply chains.
Don't forget that supply chains exist on the other side too...where does the materials that the masks are made from coming from?
Is any available?
Drywall is made right next to coal fired power plants for a reason...that gypsum is a byproduct of burning anthracite coal.
And if you look on eBay there are a lot of cottage industries popping up making masks.
Now we can do injection molding of plastics and rubber items with a new mold...fit them with filters of some kind that are effective...viola...
But you still have to get these things approved by OSHA, Health and Safety, and FDA as a medical device. And the EPA is going to say something about when you throw a used medical device away....will it incinerate?
This isn't as easy as you would think.
All for very little money... maybe. Because by this Fall or Winter demand is going to disappear with the invention of a cure.
And then we will eventually have a vaccine...
And all these mask factories and useless supply chains laying about with no use.
