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Why N95 masks are hard to make

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Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make

#41

Post by ironmagma »

dan_quixote wrote: post #29
ironmagma wrote: post #3

This is the price we pay for outsourcing our manufacturing capabilities. We should have kept in-house manufacturing alive, there is plenty of capacity for it here in the States.

Easy to say now, but there's just not enough manpower to make _everything_ in house that we deem strategically important. And if the price isn't viable on the free market, how is it justifiable long term? I generally agree with your sentiment though.

Not enough manpower at the moment, for sure, but we should create it through education and social investment. It's generally a strategic advantage to have manufacturing capabilities no matter what discipline; it's less that we are reliant on China for this one particular thing and more that we have allowed our once-strong manufacturing muscle to atrophy. We subsidize gas heavily because it's a strategic advantage to the nation; call it a hunch but I think there are more knock-on benefits to being able to make stuff than is readily apparent (and I thought such a view would be more popular on Hacker News to be frank).

Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make

#42

Post by Retric »

est31 wrote: post #35
Retric wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s 3 N95 masks for 200,000 people every day. China meanwhile has over 3 million doctors. So, production clearly needs to ramp up, but it’s not so far off the mark they can’t get there in a few months.

By now they probably have already exhausted/repurposed all the second hand manufacturing machines so they need new ones to add additional capacity. According to the article, the company building them needs months for a new one due to the precision requirements.

Even assuming it takes 5-6 months, I assume they did not start building new machines today. Starting late January puts the ramp up starting in ~3-4 months.

Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make

#43

Post by stubish »

koolba wrote: post #4

> China now makes 200 million face masks a day — more than twenty times the amount it made at the start of February. That’s an insane number of masks. Does one in seven Chinese wear a fresh one every day ? Is this gonna be the new normal?

Only 600,000 of those are N95 standard, suitable for health care and using the special fabric in short supply.

Mask wear in Asia is common, for smog, smoke and controlling flu. The cheap ones don't last long, and often replaced instead of put through the wash. Common mask usage requires use of cheaper, more comfortable masks rather than the health care certified ones.

Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make

#44

Post by gruez »

1996 wrote: post #27
treparist wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surgical and homemade masks are much better than nothing. /Thats basically a misinformation. They are completely useless, and if you dont change them each 40-50 minutes - bring you more damage then good

> Thats basically a misinformation. They are completely useless, and if you dont change them each 40-50 minutes - bring you more damage then good Evidence required. If mist forms on my glasses from breathing, I assume the mask must be doing something. I read a comment the other day on how many efforts are impeded by the "quest for perfection" I know such homemade masks are not 100% proof. But even if they only work t…

>I know such homemade masks are not 100% proof. But even if they only work to reduce 10% of the risks if everybody wore them, than can be the difference between a R0 of 1.1 and 1.0 - and gives great results overall.

There's a psychological component to this. If a mask reduces the chance of infection (from daily contact) from 60% (random number) to 54%, I'm not going to bother, even though in aggregate it might make a huge difference. That's just me though.

Also, I suspect half-measures like this are only effective in the early stages of the outbreak. For instance, if the viral load required for infection is 10 units (completely arbitrary), and your daily exposure is between 5 and 15, using a home-made mask that filters out 50% of viruses makes sense. However, if your daily exposure is 100 (presumably because everyone around you is infected), that 50% reduction isn't going to help you.

Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make

#45

Post by bitL »

droithomme wrote: post #10
bitL wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surgical/homemade masks are working only if everybody is wearing them and they just impede transmission from the wearer to other people around. If you are the only person wearing such mask, you might not impede infection by much.

That's false and you are wrong and are posting dangerous misinformation that is harming society. If I am infected it protects others. If I am not infected it protects me.

Surgical masks are protecting patients not doctors. Please educate yourself.

"The coronavirus is an upper respiratory virus and a surgical mask does not protect you from that kind of virus,” he said. “In fact, when people buy up these masks and hoard these masks then they might not be available for healthcare providers to use for patient care.”

He said surgical masks are more effective on people who are already infected with an illness to keep them from infecting others rather than the other way around. He said other types of masks are not very effective at preventing you from getting sick either."

https://www.wibc.com/news/local-indiana/surgeon-general-surg...

Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make

#46

Post by echelon »

_2d30 wrote: post #13

I do believe these masks are also made in the US, but this situation highlights exactly why a country having its own major manufacturing base is not just an economic need but rather also a national security need. The US needs to invest in itself immediately to rebuild its lost manufacturing base. In economic terms, under certain definitions and assumptions that are typical under modern economics, a trade war such as…

All the workers being replaced by automation and having to rely on "gig economy" work could pursue manufacturing instead. We have the workforce.

We can pay workers livable wages and give them meaningful work. Cost of goods could be reduced through greater efficiency. Research into robotics and automation could fuel a new decade of American growth.

Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make

#47

Post by azurezyq »

est31 wrote: post #39
koolba wrote: post #4

> China now makes 200 million face masks a day — more than twenty times the amount it made at the start of February. That’s an insane number of masks. Does one in seven Chinese wear a fresh one every day ? Is this gonna be the new normal?

Those masks aren't N95 class meaning they can't be used by care workers. Of the N95 class masks, only 600k are manufactured daily, which isn't enough by far, especially when growth of patient numbers continues.

Care workers are in tiers. Not everyone needs a N95.

Not to mention there a are only 8k active covid cases in China now.

Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make

#49

Post by aaron695 »

As has already been talked about on HN, during Ebola, research was done into any mask.

And yes normal masks do work.

Once again the medical community needed 100% and people thinking of they are clever because they know a factoid are hurting reality.

Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make

#50

Post by stubish »

1996 wrote: post #27
treparist wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surgical and homemade masks are much better than nothing. /Thats basically a misinformation. They are completely useless, and if you dont change them each 40-50 minutes - bring you more damage then good

> Thats basically a misinformation. They are completely useless, and if you dont change them each 40-50 minutes - bring you more damage then good Evidence required. If mist forms on my glasses from breathing, I assume the mask must be doing something. I read a comment the other day on how many efforts are impeded by the "quest for perfection" I know such homemade masks are not 100% proof. But even if they only work t…

Even the N95 are not 100% proof, even if used correctly. Any barrier helps, and the claim that mask use promotes false confidence is highly dubious.
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