Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Doctors Say Shortage of Protective Gear Is Dire

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 145 posts

Re: Doctors Say Shortage of Protective Gear Is Dire

#81

Post by m3nu »

keenmaster wrote: post #71
immad wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you email me (email in profile) and I can connect you to some people in the US trying to solve this.

Why don't they just charge a higher price to buyers who don't pay cash now? I understand there is a lot of demand, but this does not compute with me. My spidey senses would be going off.

This works for private buyers, but these gov agencies have a regulation that doesn't allow them to pay in advance ever. The price isn't the issue. So they can only buy from really big firms, who don't have stock right now and aren't flexible.

Re: Doctors Say Shortage of Protective Gear Is Dire

#82

Post by lambdaba »

nostromo wrote: post #68
oezi wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But can this be done without abandoning capitalism as a primary driving economic model? It would require a reversal in economic steering (tariffs, government intervention, etc) of enormous scale. The only thing that has come to matter is the hunt to squeeze every penny, we have forgotten to do anything else.

Look at farming subsidies as an example. The government funds some percent of our food production by putting in place limited price and production controls for American-produced goods. The hand of the market is not completely removed: producers still want to be as efficient as possible. The cost of food has gone down over time. And inefficient producers still go bankrupt. Is this a good model? I have no idea. It cert…

> It certainly has drawbacks. (Ex: we subsidize too much corn and wheat.)

Huge drawback right here, corn (high fructose corn syrup, corn itself) and wheat are both at the center of the obesity epidemic and health crisis. It's a point that's often brought up and isn't controversial at this point, but inertia makes it hard to correct, especially with said subsidies.

Re: Doctors Say Shortage of Protective Gear Is Dire

#83

Post by m3nu »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #70
m3nu wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not zeros, but time.

What I'm getting at is that if you're talking tens of thousands of dollars for an order there's a far greater number of people who can put an advance towards that than if you're talking hundreds of thousands or millions per order. Hospitals (public and private) in the Bay Area are publicly talking about sourcing PPE from non-medical vendors (e.g. construction companies) and nurses are protesting in front of hospitals…

> If you can ballpark it I'll ask around.

About $0.5 to 0.6 for surgical masks ex factory. My email is in the profile if you got a hospital or similar. Not selling to consumers for now.

Re: Doctors Say Shortage of Protective Gear Is Dire

#84

Post by c1sc0 »

m3nu wrote: post #37

I do China sourcing and have decent access to 3-ply surgical masks and limited access to N95 masks. It's really hard to sell either of those to government bodies, even near cost. Already talked to the Red Cross, wholesale pharmacies and different ministries. They generally insist on payment on delivery, which we can't do for larger orders, as factories sell to whoever has the cash at the factory gate. Some also want…

I’m working on a fundraiser to help with Corona. Initially our idea was to donate straight to e.g. the WHO. What is the most efficient way to spend money right now?

Re: Doctors Say Shortage of Protective Gear Is Dire

#85

Post by theslurmmustflo »

lettergram wrote: post #34

The crazy thing to me is the government or hospitals haven’t issued a massive n95 drive to obtain more. I have a few left over from a house project I did a while back. Kept one for myself, but happy to donate the other 4 I have. I’m sure if the request was actually made people would donate. Is it enough? No idea, but construction workers, painters, etc don’t need them right now. People want to do something, let them.

You know you basically have to toss them after a single use if you want them to be effective, right?

Re: Doctors Say Shortage of Protective Gear Is Dire

#86

Post by systemvoltage »

cycrutchfield wrote: post #74
systemvoltage wrote: post #39

Let this be a lesson to learn for western democracies to not put all of their eggs in one basket. Diversification, localization and strategic globalization of the supply chain should be at the forefront of the issues to be discussed, ratified and acted upon after this pandemic is over. When one country manufactures 90% of world's goods (not accurate, to make a point), while the top 1% gets their bonuses for increasin…

Strategic stockpiles seem much more cost effective than autarky.

It is not about autarky, but diversification and resiliency of the supply chain. Automakers are experts at this - BMW cars made in USA (South Carolina) have US made parts and ones made in Germany have locally sourced parts from Germany, yet the ones made in South Africa have diversified sources - both local and international. If you're in the US, you can see this % of locally made parts right on the window price sticker. It's not just for show - if there is a shortage of headliners in US, it can import it for a short term needs from Europe and vice-versa.

No one is suggesting complete in-house isolation aka Autarky, but to avoid SPOF (single point of failure) supply chains - probability of each link breaking adds up when your supply chain is 18 levels deep from an iPhone to the copper mine.

Re: Doctors Say Shortage of Protective Gear Is Dire

#87

Post by op03 »

oezi wrote: post #64
systemvoltage wrote: post #39

Let this be a lesson to learn for western democracies to not put all of their eggs in one basket. Diversification, localization and strategic globalization of the supply chain should be at the forefront of the issues to be discussed, ratified and acted upon after this pandemic is over. When one country manufactures 90% of world's goods (not accurate, to make a point), while the top 1% gets their bonuses for increasin…

But can this be done without abandoning capitalism as a primary driving economic model? It would require a reversal in economic steering (tariffs, government intervention, etc) of enormous scale. The only thing that has come to matter is the hunt to squeeze every penny, we have forgotten to do anything else.

This is what will happen to the 1000 bucks that they deposit in all accounts.

People don't get the number of systems that will automatically target the most vulnerable/easily exploitable as soon as a deposit shows up, is a much bigger issue than actually handing cash out to people.

The "squeeze every penny" mega machine has grown so complex and large its hard to see how it can be dismantled.

Re: Doctors Say Shortage of Protective Gear Is Dire

#88

Post by fingerlocks »

m3nu wrote: post #81
keenmaster wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't they just charge a higher price to buyers who don't pay cash now? I understand there is a lot of demand, but this does not compute with me. My spidey senses would be going off.

This works for private buyers, but these gov agencies have a regulation that doesn't allow them to pay in advance ever. The price isn't the issue. So they can only buy from really big firms, who don't have stock right now and aren't flexible.

How do I learn more about this regulation?

Re: Doctors Say Shortage of Protective Gear Is Dire

#89

Post by [deleted] »

DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #23
quietthrow wrote: post #18

Again severe failure on the govt’s part. Their inaction in when it was needed the most led to all these circumstances that makes it ripe for situations like these. As the number of infections spread and economic situation get worse these kind of things will get really really bad. Once the second and third order effects kick in it’s going to be a catastrophe. And our leaders answer to all of this is to give $1200 chec…

> Again severe failure on the govt’s part. If you live in a democracy, then you are part of the government. You can't just blame other people for this.

[deleted]

Re: Doctors Say Shortage of Protective Gear Is Dire

#90

Post by m3nu »

c1sc0 wrote: post #84
m3nu wrote: post #37

I do China sourcing and have decent access to 3-ply surgical masks and limited access to N95 masks. It's really hard to sell either of those to government bodies, even near cost. Already talked to the Red Cross, wholesale pharmacies and different ministries. They generally insist on payment on delivery, which we can't do for larger orders, as factories sell to whoever has the cash at the factory gate. Some also want…

I’m working on a fundraiser to help with Corona. Initially our idea was to donate straight to e.g. the WHO. What is the most efficient way to spend money right now?

Personally I'd buy stuff in China and ship it to a hospital of your choice. Given they can accept the certification.
Post reply on HN