Earlier quoted context omitted.
One such “conflicting report” is CureVac themselves[0]: > To make it clear again on coronavirus: CureVac has not received from the US government or related entities an offer before, during and since the Task Force meeting in the White House on March 2. CureVac rejects all allegations from press. Oh sure, the original articles have been updated, but still the myth remains. Funny how that works. 0: https://mobile.twitt…
Yes, that is what I was hinting at. Of course they could lie in the interest of a possible business relationship, but I see no evidence of this. I wonder how the rumor started.
Why N95 masks are hard to make
301–310 of 363 posts
Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make
#302Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It is also why I personally feel we are better off with removing all wage taxes on the poor than trying to push minimum wage higher and higher. Confused, are you under the impression the entirety of everyone's wages is taxed in the United States? P.S. On your larger point: I'm not sure in what world you think 0% tax is a substitute for minimum wage. It certainly does not prevent you from earning atrociously low wag…
To be fair, I never said get rid of minimum wage. I was talking about pushing it up to things like $20. The point I was trying to make is that if you go too high, you cause people to just up tax brackets and higher costs at the places they shop because those workers are also making $20/hour now too. Some people think tools like EITC helps the poor more than pushing minimum wage up and I tend to agree. I don't think E…
You're complaining raising minimum wage to $20 is not the solution, but you want to raise it some, and make up for the rest with lowering taxes? So what mix are you imagining will give comparable results? Like say, raise minimum wage to, I dunno, maybe $10? In what world is lower taxes going to make up the $8.40 shortfall? Are your taxes going to be negative? Or are you suggesting you're comfortable raising minimum wage to $18.40 but the $20.00 is what you find overly excessive?
P.S. I wasn't even talking about EITC, but the standard deduction. Your first $18,650 of income as head of household are simply untaxed ($24,800 for couples)... period. That's exactly what you were proposing, and it's been already there, for a long time. In hourly terms that's $9/hr for heads of households ($12/hr for couples) of untaxed income. EITC is relatively obscure by comparison, so I'm confused why you would first think of that when replying... I'm guessing you might be confused about how standard deductions and tax brackets work? Or possibly unfamiliar with the US tax system?
Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stockpiling is good as part of the preparation but isn't enough. e.g. "Five months worth of supplies were used by one hospital in six days" [1] How's any country supposed to stockpile enough at that rate? And stockpiles require upkeep and evergreening. Otherwise things like masks eventually expire [2]. Upkeep costs money too. [1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic... [2] https://nationalpost…
> e.g. "Five months worth of supplies were used by one hospital in six days" [1] Here in Austria we don't even have enough N95 masks for hospital staff and medical personnel. This is completely irresponsible and not impossible to fix. It should be part of any pandemic plan to stockpile these. Things would work much better if at least this was covered now, but sadly it isn't and people will die because of it.
Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make
#304Earlier quoted context omitted.
A much simpler option would to stop seeing the world as “them” and “us” and de-emphasize the borders in general. It would be great if it were illegal to control the flows of inputs to and outputs from manufacturing, but I doubt national leaders hellbent on playing the blame game and prioritizing some lives/prosperity over others simply based on the accident of birthplace would ever give up that sort of control they n…
Except there are situations such as this one where it doesn't matter how cooperative countries are. Even China was unable to produce enough medical supplies for their own needs, much less for the entire world. The US and Europe absolutely need to rebuild their industrial capacity to be able to cover their own needs in crisis situations. Anything else is just insanity.
"China" doesn't produce anything; human beings standing on the landmass called China produce medical supplies, just as human beings on other landmasses produce medical supplies. Recipients of medical supplies need more than can be supplied by Earth's manufacturers right now, as well as supply/demand scoped within specific regions or countries. That has nothing to do with countries or regions, any more than it has anything to do with which US state or city a factory is in.
I do agree that we should avoid excessive centralization of the manufacture of certain essential items, medications and medical supplies (and advanced/low power CPUs, and passenger aircraft) among them, but not for nationalistic reasons—simply because the Earth is big, transport is wasteful and resource-intensive (even if economically cheap), and resources are sometimes scarce/precious, such as in emergencies or supply interruptions (e.g. melt-blown fabric producing machines are time-consuming to produce).
It's nothing to do with the nationality of the people who produce the supplies, or the nationality of the people who need the supplies.
Perhaps the UN or another international body could coordinate ensuring that a certain amount of manufacturing capacity for various and specifically enumerated essential things could be carefully maintained on each continent, to guard against planet-scale civilizational collapse in rare events. I think in the old model this would be termed something like a "national security stockpile" or "strategic reserve" but ultimately it's more of a "civilization continuity capacity". Essential medicines and equipment are essential medicines and equipment, regardless of which humans need them, or where.
Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Apparently medium scale sheet metal forming operations in the States have all but disappeared - everything is either outsourced to China, or is small scale, high precision work that can't meet demand of more than N hundred pieces a week. I can personally confirm this. Very unfortunate, and I'm positive it's helping stifle innovation. Having to go to China for your custom sheet metal needs (with the communication dif…
You can get custom sheet metal work, if you're willing the pay the price and possibly are in the right industry. Sheet metal, welding, carpentry, pipefitters, and pretty much every trade are in massive demand in shipbuilding/repair. NNSY fails a significant portion of welder applicants just because they can't lay a proper weld. They pay... a lot of money.
Driving around Newport News, Groton, or even Birmingham is like being on another planet economically speaking.
But I definitely see the point, as most of the suppliers are sized for defense, not commercial industrial volume.
And from their perspective, I get the choice. Why risk expansion, when the trend has been towards free trade and offshoring? A 100x customer who decides to switch suppliers in a year isn't a win. At least DoD is a semi-reliable customer.
Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make
#306Earlier quoted context omitted.
All of the things you've said about mask functionality, reusability and sterilization are very interesting. As is your experience with in-home caregiving. Is there a quick, effective and easy sanitizing protocol for N95 masks that you think would work for hospitals that are short on masks?
One of the first articles that I read mentioned the use of autoclaves, essentially steamers used for sterilizing surgical tools, etc. I think it was a NIOSH article. These are already in use in hospitals. That led me to the article I linked about using microwaves. Microwave ovens excite water molecules to cook and the creation of steam from the cooking process should kill the pathogens. I have family members who need…
You need temperatures well in excess of 100 degrees Celsius to reliably kill everything, especially bacterial spores (which, admittedly, are not the major issue here).
To do so, autoclave use high pressure steam (121C at 15 psi) for long enough that everything reaches that temperature. A microwave won’t even get close to that, though it can disinfect, rather the sterilize, just like boiling water can. You also need to be careful that the entire object gets heat-treated; home microwaves often have hot and cold spots and one missed spot can spoil everything.
This stuff is fairly complicated and I’d encourage you stick with established methods if you can, which I think is currently treatment with a UVC lamp.
Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make
#307Earlier quoted context omitted.
Highly-automated, "clean" manufacturing is all well and good for billion-dollar highly-capitalized, politically-sheltered megafactories, but what about the other 90% of manufacturers? Manufacturing is a dirty, dangerous, manual business. I think the small guys will tell you that environmental regulations killed manufacturing in the west, not labour costs. We've been living in lala land with it all offshore, out of si…
Tell that to Germany, stricter environmental regulations and a very healthy, highly developed manufacturing sector. They might not have all of their supply chain made locally but Germany makes the machines that makes machines so if needed they could ramp up their internal manufacturing quite quickly, doesn't seem to be the case for the US.
Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make
#308Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, I never said get rid of minimum wage. I was talking about pushing it up to things like $20. The point I was trying to make is that if you go too high, you cause people to just up tax brackets and higher costs at the places they shop because those workers are also making $20/hour now too. Some people think tools like EITC helps the poor more than pushing minimum wage up and I tend to agree. I don't think E…
The higher tax bracket, only taxes the money that falls into that bracket, they will still have higher after tax incomes.
Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make
#309Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Apparently medium scale sheet metal forming operations in the States have all but disappeared - everything is either outsourced to China, or is small scale, high precision work that can't meet demand of more than N hundred pieces a week. I can personally confirm this. Very unfortunate, and I'm positive it's helping stifle innovation. Having to go to China for your custom sheet metal needs (with the communication dif…
You can get custom sheet metal work, if you're willing the pay the price and possibly are in the right industry. Sheet metal, welding, carpentry, pipefitters, and pretty much every trade are in massive demand in shipbuilding/repair. NNSY fails a significant portion of welder applicants just because they can't lay a proper weld. They pay... a lot of money.
You can get lucky and find someone with some brakes and benders that does cheap work for farmers, but people like that are usually extremely hard to find and mostly in rural areas.
And yes, welders do make more than someone at McDonalds or doing landscaping, but the myth of the super-high paid welder is mostly that. I just looked up NNSY welder salaries - average of 49K, and that's with a lot people there being experienced and there for a long time.
Re: Why N95 masks are hard to make
#310I 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…
> 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. 3M and Prestige Ameritech are the only companies with the ability to manufacturing N95 masks in the US from US sourced m…
I'm confused about your italics. Why does it matter where the source materials you give them comes from? i.e. Why would other manufacturers in the US be only able to manufacture masks from non-US-sourced-materials, but fail on US-sourced materials? Is there something defective with US-sourced materials that if you gave them to US-based manufacturers, their machines would break or something?