OK, I have to ask
 

Who's to blame for not gettiing any masks to the first responders.(i.e. Doctors and nurses) It's hard to believe what they are going through. No masks of all thiings.

They should at least have MASKS and all the other stuff they need. Day after day
they who could help, just shrug and say "working on it, coming soon"" we'll get back to ya"

I have a niece, in BIG US CITY in triage who has one mask she reuses and reuses day after day. She gets a new one once in a while. Calls my wife crying, for help. Oh, and she's pregnant.

Who's to blame?
Uninformed hand-wringing ninnies who are hoarding things like masks even though they don't need them, so the people who really do need them are running short of supply.
No one didn't "get them" masks. They simply are running out of their supplies and are not getting replacements fast enough.

A stockpile was created in the mid 2000s. In 2009, the stockpile was used for the H1N1 scare. 75% of the 100M N95 masks and 50M surgical masks were used up. They were never replenished.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-politics-religion/1055761-surgical-masks-n95-masks-not-replensihed.html#post10795401

The same fuuckwits that are to blame for emptying store shelves of ass tissue, bleach and soap.

same with hand sanitizer.

the people that don't have it are touching everything so its really not doing any good for those that DO have it.

So the US attorney general says if you hoard medical supplies, we'll be knocking on your door.

And then immediately after, the SEIU union says hey guess what, we just found 39 million N95 masks. We'll make them available to medical care providers right away!

heck of a coincidence.

You make it sound like the union had the masks and was hoarding them. Do you think that’s the case?

She should be able to sterilize her mask in a microwave at work, at home. Other methods some doctors have suggested are:

Heat in an oven for 30 minutes at 158 degrees Fahrenheit (70 degrees Celsius)
Use ultraviolet light for 30 minutes
Soak the mask in 75% ethyl alcohol, then let it dry
Clean the mask with liquid or vapor hydrogen peroxide
Clean the mask with bleach
Steam the mask with hot vapor from boiling water
Microwave the mask (mentioned above but I think it should be damp first, maybe with a small amount of agreeable disinfectant so as to not stink like Lysol)
Soak in soap and water, rinse and dry, (forcibly would be my personal suggestion — hair dryer)

The problem with some of these methods is the likelihood of the mask losing its shape and becoming limp. IDK what a small amount of spray or dip starch would do. YMMV.

Haven't we been told that the masks won't protect you from the virus?

Actually, the better ones will. Multi layer and form fitting. I'll tell you what really works is half face rubber painter's/miner's dust and vapor mask with the right cartridges. Not good in other than normal 19% O2 environment but it's perfect for particles down to roughly 7 nm.

Nothing is 100%.

I have been ragging on a guy on another board that lives in LA. He was bragging about how prepared they are. How their hospitals are in great shape in regards to supplies He made a post with a picture of his massive pile of N95 mask boxes.

I posted a half dozen links to LA and SF articles where nurses, doctors, and hospitals were begging to have masks donated. He denied the accuracy of the local articles. Said he would donate if someone told him to.

I don't understand how trauma hospitals don't have a stockpile of just the basics..... Not like they don't charge 1000% of the cost for the items when you go in the ER.
To ask the public for it... That makes no sense. Suppliers should be hitting med groups, hospitals, outpatient, ect ect before surplus hits free market. Evidently that's not the case.

I prepared this year by buying a **** ton of hand santizer for a few HS classrooms. Why didn't the purchasing suppliers for the hositals do that when the first cases of covid hit the US when med supply stock was plentiful....? Seriously... Everyone's **** up, leads to cries of help from the public.

Athens, Georgia hospital stocked up. They went through 5 months of PPE in 6 days.

I work at a hospital. We don't have room to warehouse material. We get supplies every day/night. Our suppliers have warehouses not us. We typically use 12-15,000 masks and gowns a week. When the supply chain works it works well. All it takes is a hiccup and we're screwed. Right now we're screwed.

And Paul has the answer. Never had idea about the burn rate on masks and gowns on a normal week. Astounding. Now multiply by a factor of 10.

This!!!!

Anyone who is not aware of how fast they are going thru supplies has not been paying attention.

Not the US, but Australia. I'll let the locals "down undah"opine on the validity of the source.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/chinese-backed-company-s-mission-to-source-australian-medical-supplies-20200325-p54du8.html

"As the coronavirus took hold in Wuhan earlier this year, staff from the Chinese government-backed global property giant Greenland Group were instructed to put their normal work on hold and source bulk supplies of essential medical items to ship back to China.

Basically all employees, the majority of whom are Chinese, were asked to source whatever medical supplies they could," one company insider told the Herald. This exercise went on for weeks through January and February, he said.

The entire accounts department, contract managers, the human resources team and even receptionists were sent on a mission to find bulk supplies of surgical masks, thermometers, antibacterial wipes, hand sanitisers, gloves and Panadol."

Kumbaya, One Love and all that jazz....

And part of the issue is moving from reusable to throw away masks, gloves, etc. I understand that it is more "risky" to have reusable gowns, masks and gloves, but we would be far better off than we are today.

My suppliers (McKesson and Medline) had masks and sanitizer on allocation since early January. You couldn't order them even before things went sideways.

Everything is manufactured in China and nothing was being shipped due to the virus since December.

We were calling to try to reserve hospital beds from our suppliers. But there are really only 2 bed suppliers we rent from and every hospital in the area is call the same 2.

This is how the conversion among the chain of command goes;

The VP asks the Director how many extra beds can we rent. The Director turns to the Manager and tells him to call our suppliers and see how many they have. The Supplier says they have 20, do you want me to deliver them? No just want to know how many you have.

So 6 hospitals in the area called the Suppler with the same question and he tells them he has 20.

None of the hospitals want to commit to having them delivered because that's when the clock starts on the rent.

So five days later the VP decides we want all 20. Supplier says sorry dude, all gone.