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Taiwan rapidly built up factories to make 10 million masks a day for its citizens (population: <24 million) as part of its plan. Masks for everyone in public i

Taiwan rapidly built up factories to make 10 million masks a day for its citizens (population: <24 million) as part of its plan. Masks for everyone in public is a necessary but not sufficient condition. Check out Taiwan's Covid-19 Response Plan published in JAMA for details: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762689?guestAccessKey=2a3c6994-9e10-4a0b-9f32-cc2fb55b61a5 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762689?gu... What is the cost of an automated mask making machine? < $100,000/set (based on Alibaba data). Each set can make ~100 pieces/min * 60 min * 17 hours > 100,000 / day. To make a mask daily for everyone in the US would take 3,300 such machines * $0.1 million = $330 million. Along with all other costs, total capital investment is likely less than a few billion dollars. Costs of capital, materials, operations, and distribution all together would be negligible relative to savings in healthcare, not to mention less misery all around.

tehlike 7y ago
Or the economic impact which is at the order of trillions based on stimulus package.
MikeAmelung 7y ago
If we don't take some sort of action to bring essential manufacturing, including pharmaceuticals, back to the US after this, I might entirely lose my mind. It shouldn't matter where you fall on the political spectrum, or if it's going to cost too much for the labor, or the fact that the whole thing has to be powered by reverse carbon collection or whatever the hell, it just HAS to be done.
- scruple 7y ago
  And we should also be losing our minds if our government doesn't go back to peacetime national stockpiling.
dilyevsky 7y ago
They just agreed to pour 2T into economy and you’re counting some measly hundreds of millions =)
- xiphias2 7y ago
  6T and counting. I'm angry because of the same thing. It would be much easier to stop the virus from spreading if the messaging wasn't that full of lies.
mikkelam 7y ago
You can easily reuse an n95 mask, someone did a study that 15 minutes in a rice cooker or 30 minutes in an oven at 70 C should make it reusable Here's the study https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Fstanfordmedicine.box.com%2Fv%2Fcovid19-PPE-1-1 https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Fstanfordmedicine... Can't find anything about the rice cooker though.

tehlike 7y ago

Or the economic impact which is at the order of trillions based on stimulus package.

MikeAmelung 7y ago

If we don't take some sort of action to bring essential manufacturing, including pharmaceuticals, back to the US after this, I might entirely lose my mind. It shouldn't matter where you fall on the political spectrum, or if it's going to cost too much for the labor, or the fact that the whole thing has to be powered by reverse carbon collection or whatever the hell, it just HAS to be done.

scruple 7y ago
And we should also be losing our minds if our government doesn't go back to peacetime national stockpiling.

dilyevsky 7y ago

They just agreed to pour 2T into economy and you’re counting some measly hundreds of millions =)

xiphias2 7y ago
6T and counting. I'm angry because of the same thing. It would be much easier to stop the virus from spreading if the messaging wasn't that full of lies.

mikkelam 7y ago

You can easily reuse an n95 mask, someone did a study that 15 minutes in a rice cooker or 30 minutes in an oven at 70 C should make it reusable Here's the study https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Fstanfordmedicine.box.com%2Fv%2Fcovid19-PPE-1-1 https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Fstanfordmedicine... Can't find anything about the rice cooker though.