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American mask makers are going out of business
- vorpalhex 5y agoNever go all in on a time limited business. Gotta expand to stay afloat.
- grubbs 5y agoTrump T-Shirts->Covid Masks->???
- ev1 5y agoWhile traveling through the middle US I've found some absolutely strange (to an outsider) roadside stands in the middle of nowhere selling obviously purchased in bulk from China anti-Biden merch and BLM merch (masks, shirts, caps..) at the same place
- lelanthran 5y agoIt is terrifying that you find that strange. Catering to all regardless of political affiliation is a good indicator of the populations freedom of political thought. Where are you from that such a thing is unusual?
- tomrod 5y ago"Terrifying"?
- lelanthran 5y agoYup. Terrifying that there is a country somewhere where it is normal for retailers to have politically motivated policies on what will be stocked or sold. Political organisations selling T-shirts that advance their cause? Normal. Retailers basing stock decisions based on advancing particular political ideologies? Not normal.
- tomrod 5y ago> Retailers basing stock decisions based on advancing particular political ideologies? Not normal To be fair, "retailers" aren't a normal concept, being a recent innovation on human systems. Nothing about modern society is "normal".
- ev1 5y agoI found it strange in a confusing/amusing manner, like there is zero politics or patriotism involved in any direction, it was just clearly a for-profit capitalistic cash grab at the cheapest possible price point.
- lelanthran 5y ago> I found it strange in a confusing/amusing manner, like there is zero politics or patriotism involved in any direction, Yeah, that's what you want from a retailer.
- vmception 5y agoswitched to dropshipping Q-Anon branded coffee mugs 8 months ago
- vmception 5y agoFrom my experience I don't think anyone went all in. They did the opportunistic thing, and now do the next opportunistic thing or nothing. Way to go!
- snapetom 5y agoI believe it was the Mr. Bowen in this article that, despite heavily criticism, steadfastly refused to expand his mask-making business during the early days of the pandemic. His reason was that it would be stupid to expand his operation without long term contractual guarantees and regulatory assurances. Good on him for holding the line. His business would be in trouble right now if he expanded because the US still obviously hasn't learned the lesson.
- throwawayboise 5y agoNothing to do with the fact that the demand for masks has cratered, with them not being required in most places anymore?
- bee_rider 5y agoThere's still some demand for them, it is just low enough that it can be met with imports. And who could think of a reason why we might need the capability to domestically produce a bunch of masks all of a sudden, right? Inconceivable.
- daxfohl 5y agoMy guess, we'll be back wearing them again in two months.
- sbmthakur 5y agoDue to a more contagious variant?
- daxfohl 5y agoEasing restrictions will open whole new pathways to social groups who have not yet been infected. China is about to explode, so transmission and variants to come from there. Most people are not boosted, immunity isn't gonna be as strong as we think.
- encryptluks2 5y agoIn the year 2048, the drivethru at Dunkin Donuts is backed up for miles as people wait to get their free dozen donuts for getting their 100th booster. Johnny is seen jogging by without a mask as the people yell at them from their cars that he is endangering their lives.
- jrockway 5y agoI have bad news but we already get yearly boosters for respiratory diseases. And in pretty much every country except the US, people wear masks when they're sick.
- tomrod 5y agoThis is good news.
- encryptluks2 5y agoPeople that are at high risk of the flu get yearly shots for it, but typically they are only between 40 and 60% effective. No one is saying that sick people shouldn't wear masks.
- fma 5y agoThe covid tests mailed to me by the US government are made in China. I'm sure the government contracted it to a US supplier who bought the tests from China...but come on . 2 years in and we aren't producing even Covid tests? Why can't the US government mandate hospitals need to purchase a percentage of their supplies from US manufacturers in order to receive medicaid/Medicare. It can be 10, 20%, low enough to keep costs down by importing the bulk from China, but high enough to maintain a base that can be ramped up.
- rbobby 5y ago> Why can't the US government mandate hospitals need to purchase a percentage of their supplies from US manufacturers in order to receive medicaid/Medicare. Trade agreements most likely. I would not be surprised if that sort of preferential treatment would count as a subsidy and be actionable under NAFTA (whatever it's called now).
- dehrmann 5y agoWe also have a healthcare cost crisis. It wouldn't just be masks, it would be literally everything the hospital buys, and it would "tie their hands from getting the best price for patients" (I guarantee you a Republican would use a similar line in a campaign if that proposal went through.
- iratewizard 5y agoThere are a number of contributing factors. The lack of manufacturing in the US, which you can blame on bean counters wanting to utilize Chinese slave labor. A tax system that prefers the lower wage workers be either on the dole, work illegally, or work 3 gig-based jobs. A kafkaesque government contracting system dreamed up and continually patched by government workers. The same government workers that would work private sector if they were given a chance. But, they often can't because a lack of experience, aptitude or drive.
- xapata 5y agoSlave labor? Surely the ratio of Chinese laborers who feel enslaved is low enough that it's inappropriate to describe Chinese labor on the whole as slave labor.
- PedroBatista 5y agoThe reason for pre-pandemic masks being mostly made in India was because it was a very low profit business that basically protected the many small-medium size incumbent who already had the machinery, know-how and connections. Once the demand goes to levels similar to 2019 and the supply-chains stabilize, no business can escape the realities of the market unless they somehow manage to undercut the competition on price even more, which in this case is almost ridiculous.
- mumblemumble 5y agoIt's very common for businesses and industries that governments deem to be strategically important to be protected from market forces. Market forces are not a moral obligation, nor are they an invitation to put a huge "kick me" sign on your back, stand in front of some proverbial John Galt, and let nature take its course. They're just a description of how things tend to naturally work out in the absence of intervention.
- remram 5y agoThey are going out of the business of making masks. Isn't that a good thing?
- hprotagonist 5y agobecause no surgeons, lab techs, or workers need masks when there isn’t a pandemic on. N95 respirators get used for all sorts of stuff. I use them so i don’t breathe in sintered brake pad dust when i work on my car, for example.
- remram 5y agoAre every single one of them going out of business? Genuinely asking because the article is paywalled.
- ceroxylon 5y agoI can't find a reference for a modern surgeon abstaining from wearing a mask while operating, could you please provide a source?
- JasonFruit 5y agoThat was sarcasm.
- ceroxylon 5y agoHaha oops, thank you for the clarification.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- mumblemumble 5y agoWell, like the article says, it's a big strategic problem for the USA to not have any domestic PPE production. 2 years ago all the health care establishments in the USA really, really needed N95 masks, but couldn't get them. Because they were all manufactured overseas, and all the countries that produced them decided to temporarily stop exporting to protect their own supplies. It was a problem. The emergency department where my dad used to work nearly had to shut down for a while due to staffing shortages from his colleagues catching COVID. It happened with H1N1, it happened with COVID-19, and now the US is negligently ensuring that it will happen to them again with the next major epidemic, too. (Also, that phrase "used to" should perhaps be chilling to anyone who lives in the USA and does not possess a mutant healing factor.)
- grognak420 5y ago
- rejor121 5y agoEasy. Just say that the masks not only protect you from Covid, but also from those identity stealing facial recognition cams!
- yalogin 5y agoI feel like it’s also a matter of availability and knowledge. I had no idea masks were being manufactured in the US and don’t know if they are targeted towards consumers or hospitals either. Also people buy everything through Amazon, so unless they are available there and specifically highlighted, it’s very tough for the average consumer to buy them.
- dsizzle 5y agoThese masks are made in the US (as mentioned in the listing) and they're on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/NIOSH-approved-anti-counterfeit-packaging-Particulate-Respirator/dp/B09B8Q81J7/ref=sr_1_1 https://www.amazon.com/NIOSH-approved-anti-counterfeit-packa... I bought some and they're pretty good.
- namelosw 5y agoThere wasn't so many mask makers in China before Covid. And after Covid there won't be as many either - in fact, they're just going to shrug it off and make something else by then. People are talking about Shenzhen electronics all the time. It's that impressive because the supply chains are there. Yiwu, the Shenzhen counterpart for everything else is less mentioned: no matter its masks, toys, clothes, furniture, or MAGA hats, or Ukrainian flags (or Donetsk flags, or even RoC flags, they don't care), they make EVERYTHING and it's the place the world put orders to. It's the kitchen sink of the light industry, so that companies stay afloat instead of making masks for life.
- noobermin 5y agoYou say that but those people not "making masks for life" controlled 90% of the mask market in the US. Who cares how they did it, the main issue is the fact this country is unwilling to build up local supply chains because they're too busy giving themselves fat bonuses by cutting costs while jacking up hospital bills on patients (speaking of the hospital admins who are responsible for this sort of thing) and no one in government or anyone else is going to stop them.
- ch4s3 5y ago> Who cares how they did it Isn’t that sort of the whole question? > the main issue is the fact this country is unwilling to build up local supply chains We don’t have a command economy. It also doesn’t make much sense to pay prevailing US wages to produce masks that sell for $0.50 per unit, you would need incredible scale to make that work, you’d need to be 3M, who does make them. > because they're too busy giving themselves fat bonuses by cutting costs while jacking up hospital bills on patients What? People who run hospitals are unlikely to every be involved in manufacturing anything, it’s a totally different kind of business. I’m not sure what you’re arguing here.
- int_19h 5y ago> It also doesn’t make much sense to pay prevailing US wages to produce masks that sell for $0.50 per unit One could argue that there's an inherent ethical issue at play if the country needs masks priced at $0.50 per unit, but can't manufacture them itself while paying wages that it considers fair.
- petre 5y agoCan't the production be repurposed to making HEPA filters or vehicle filters in times of normality, then switch on the mask making machines during a pandemic?
- noobermin 5y ago
- pkaye 5y agoWhere should people move to?
- dikaio 5y agoStart with getting politicians in office that care. Deal with current Politicians, Executives of multinational corporations, Pharma and the industrial complex. When China threatened to not send the US medicine during the pandemic it should have made it clear what the US should be preparing for.
- noobermin 5y agoWhich politicians in which party care? The current admin isn't Trump anymore.
- iamleppert 5y agoWhy is human labor required to make masks at all? You’d think it would be nearly fully automated by now. It looks like some woman sitting at some kind of giant sewing machine. China probably can produce the masks because they are masters of economies of scale. Sure, there are still sweatshops but anyone who has actually been inside a Chinese factory knows that is selling them short. Most Chinese factories are nearly completely automated and vastly more sophisticated than anything you’ll ever see in the US. They are obsessed with automation and continuously invest back into the business, preferring ways to increase per work output with technology. I’d compare it to Amazon, which also makes me wonder why hasn’t Amazon gotten into all sorts of manufacturing by now?
- m3nu 5y agoThe machines to make masks are fairly cheap (100k or so, maybe less now) and with some tinkering they can be fully automated. Also gives more consistent quality. The expensive part is the non-woven base material. I’m not sure this would be available in the US or could be stored for long. Even in CN only a few firms make it and it was the main bottleneck during Covid. Source: worked closely with smaller CN companies to make masks and that’s what they shared with me over the previous 2 years.
- t8e56vd4ih 5y ago> non-woven base material what does that mean?
- m3nu 5y agoIt's a kind of artificial textile. For face masks it needs to be small enough to filter large droplets, but large enough for air. It also has an electric charge to bind very small particles to the fabric. So not your ordinary fabric.
- aaron695 5y ago
- dragontamer 5y agoThe big N95 mask makers seem like: 3M, Moldex, and Kimtech. As far as I can tell, all three of these are 100% American made. A bunch of smaller companies opened up due to the N95 mask shortage for the pandemic. I'm not surprised that the smaller businesses are going out of business, but I have my doubts that the "big" ones are leaving USA either.
- nhoughto 5y agoReminds me of the vocal American n95 mask producer who wasn’t operating at 100% production 2 years ago bc he has seen it all before, knew buyers wouldn’t appear just bc American and would opt for cheaper products naturally undermining stable domestic supply. If he ramped up he would just erode his profit margin, sad.
- throwaway4good 5y agoI am the only one who is thankful for the adaptive Chinese industry? Personally I am happy that I am not toiling away at some mask factory but instead sitting here, in the safety of my own home, copying pieces of JavaScript from stackoverflow into an internal webapp for some big corp, with an ample supply of masks and rapid antigen tests at my disposal.
- rognjen 5y agoThere are a few industries that will have to consolidate now that the pandemic seems to be calming down. Anecdotally I know of several small businesses that switched from an unrelated field to importing and selling medical and related supplies. Testing clinics have also grown and their size will no longer be sustainable due to reduced demand. Thee has also been a boom in delivery businesses that were sustainable when demand was overwhelming but will no longer be viable, restaurant and grocery in particular. They also will have knock-on effects onto other businesses such as packing material. If restaurants deliver a lot less they'll need a lot fewer take-out boxes, etc