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Facebook donates emergency reserve of 720k masks

reuters.com

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Re: Facebook donates emergency reserve of 720k masks

#81

Post by jb775 »

_bxg1 wrote: post #53
jb775 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it makes you wonder how exactly healthcare $$$ is flowing through the supply chain. It obviously isn't tied up in equipment inventory or logistics management. Time to shake the healthcare-costs tree and see what falls out!

I believe the healthcare system is so bloated because of a lack of competition. It made news when Trump pushed for legislation that would force hospitals to tell you how much they cost . Think about that. Setting aside all the arguments that it shouldn't be left up to the free market at all, in what world can a marketplace be healthy without something so basic as price disclosure ?

Good point, I know that healthcare price disclosure is legally required in Australia. I wonder how the systems compare.

If you trace through the hospital's costs, it seems like a bulk of healthcare money ends up in the pockets of medical device companies. In my opinion, it doesn't seem like competition is behaving naturally at that level either. It seems like these companies are using the healthcare flustercluck as a proxy for anti-competitive behavior.

Re: Facebook donates emergency reserve of 720k masks

#82

Post by toomuchtodo »

ci5er wrote: post #26
toomuchtodo wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_immunity (Sovereign immunity)

I know the concept. Schiff just tried to apply it to not having to reveal his subpoenas. But "Qualified" immunity is an adjunct concept.

Just pointing out it’s a steep hill to climb.

Re: Facebook donates emergency reserve of 720k masks

#83

Post by fragmede »

nprz wrote: post #33
epistasis wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is enough for 14 days for ~50,000 people at 1/day. It seems like huge overkill when stated as a single number, but two weeks is a reasonable amount to plan for, especially for reserves at a time when the supply chain is stressed. I wish our hospitals' administration had as much foresight. I think this crisis is making it clear that management in health care is vastly overpaid.

It truly is insane how quickly the severity of the crisis ramped up. Monday co-workers on slack were messaging how the flu was more of a worry, after Wednesday it was mandatory work from home. And it truly feels like medical authorities were as caught off guard as the rest of us. Who was on guard duty? Was no one monitoring the situation? No one thought to increase production of PPE or RNA tests?

The US had a pandemic response team, who's job it would have been to be on guard duty. They were "let go" in 2018 to reduce wasteful government spending.

Re: Facebook donates emergency reserve of 720k masks

#84

Post by robomartin »

IAmEveryone wrote: post #52
robomartin wrote: post #40

A note for those critical about donations not coming sooner: It is important to understand hospitals and doctors could not legally use industrial N95 masks. No hospital could accept them without exposing themselves to massive litigation. I know this sounds stupid from outside the US. Sadly, this is part of our reality. The key that unlocked donations was President Trump. Upon learning of this restriction he quickly p…

> The key that unlocked donations was President Trump. Upon learning of this restriction he quickly put into place a release of liability for medical use of industrial N95 masks. President Trump did nothing except sign the law when it came to his desk. The provision was in the “Second Coronavirus Package” that originated in the US House of Representatives. It was written by Democratic lawmakers and sponsored by Nita…

> And even if not, there would not have been liability anyway: it was manufactures that were previously liable when selling the wrong type of mask to health care workers. But in Facebook donating masks, no manufacturer is part of the transaction.

Just noticed this. It's wrong.

Hospitals could not accept donations of industrial masks, or, more accurately, they could not use them. This would expose them to potentially serious legal liability. Simple example: Someone dies. Lawyers discover medical team member were using using industrial masks they accepted from donations. They sue the hospital, every doctor, nurse and practitioner in the hospital and perhaps even whoever donated the masks.

How do I know this?

Well, as I mentioned elsewhere, my wife is a doctor and we have many doctors, nurses and other medical practitioners in our circle. In addition to this, we tried to donate many thousands of N95 masks from our own manufacturing operation's inventory to our local hospitals. They were refused, citing, very specifically "we cannot legally use industrial masks".

Once Trump went against Republicans in the House and Senate and signed the law releasing liability until 2024 we got a call from the hospitals we had contacted asking if the masks were still available. That's when we handed them over.

This, sadly, is how our legal system works. This is reality.

BTW, I do believe it was the White House who asked for the industrial mask exception to be included in the legislation. I don't have the time to go track down this assertion, so take it for what it is.

Re: Facebook donates emergency reserve of 720k masks

#85

Post by scarejunba »

abakker wrote: post #56
abakker wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, they're good for 8-10 hours, but they don't last indefinitely.

Self reply to all others: try doing something that actually tests the limits a bit for health reasons. you can tell in a welding/woodshop when N95s and P100s go bad, they get physically harder to breath through after about 6-8 hours. If they don't they're not sealed well enough. they do keep working longer (probably), but they get quite a bit worse.

Doesn't really apply to the situation being discussed. You can absolutely wear it for two weeks during the fires. It will work just fine even well sealed. Not sufficient particulate matter in the air to be significant blocker.

Re: Facebook donates emergency reserve of 720k masks

#86

Post by mygo »

slg wrote: post #69
mygo wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn’t a remote possibility. The California wildfires were real. People were wearing N95 masks last year due to the wildfires. There was even a famous article about a couple who had their engagement pictures taken wearing N95 masks due to the california wildfires, which you could see in the background of the photos. And since global warming is actually a real thing, we could project more wildfires for this year.…

You focused on the wrong end of my comment. I was defending the choices of the hospitals and not criticizing the choices of Facebook.

My apologies. Misunderstood your statement.

I would still say that having stockpiles of PPE is good management. My sister is a nurse and she had been complaining about having to find gloves last year, long before there even was a crisis. Some of these hospitals really do skimp on equipment. Just In Time and LEAN practices are cool, but you need to keep a stock of backups enough to last a month or two in the event of a shortage where every other hospital is also trying to produce the same equipment. Some might say it’s easy to say this in hindsight, but I’ve been hearing about these practices long before this crisis. Right now everything on the news about these shortages just echoes what many healthcare professionals already knew and were concerned about. There are systemic management issues in the medical industry. Hopefully a bill comes from this.

Re: Facebook donates emergency reserve of 720k masks

#87

Post by derision »

nikolay wrote: post #76
IAmEveryone wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google: No results found for "If you have a stash of masks, we'll be knocking on your door." The query without quotes also doesn’t show any relevant hits on the first two pages. Also: the Facebook story is from Sunday. It’s not very likely that it is a reaction to a press conference on Monday, is it? You and all the other Trump supporters should stop making stuff up and/or learn to link to sources at least after bein…

I feel already damaged listening to Trump for over one hour. Watch the update yourself and you will hear it 1:1. I do not want to go thru that torture again! All his "update" could be compressed in one short paragraph. Maybe one day I will propose a Trump compression algorithm as his vocabulary is very limited and he keeps repeating the same nonsense a million times hoping on inducing some hypnotonic effect in his lo…

Low-IQ is not a choice. Mocking people for having a lower IQ is the same as mocking someone born without an arm or a leg or any other sort of genetic or birth defect that one has no control over. Those who suffer from mental retardation have low IQ. Should they not be spoken to in a way they can understand? Trump recognizes that everyone in the country has vastly different levels of intelligence, and speaks in a way that everyone can understand. I'm not sure why that's a point of criticism other than someone who thinks their natural intelligence somehow makes them better than others.

Re: Facebook donates emergency reserve of 720k masks

#88

Post by pinkfoot »

derision wrote: post #87
nikolay wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel already damaged listening to Trump for over one hour. Watch the update yourself and you will hear it 1:1. I do not want to go thru that torture again! All his "update" could be compressed in one short paragraph. Maybe one day I will propose a Trump compression algorithm as his vocabulary is very limited and he keeps repeating the same nonsense a million times hoping on inducing some hypnotonic effect in his lo…

Low-IQ is not a choice. Mocking people for having a lower IQ is the same as mocking someone born without an arm or a leg or any other sort of genetic or birth defect that one has no control over. Those who suffer from mental retardation have low IQ. Should they not be spoken to in a way they can understand? Trump recognizes that everyone in the country has vastly different levels of intelligence, and speaks in a way…

Nonsense, the kinds of low-IQ folk that can follow any presidential speech can understand 'new flu-like virus' instead of 'Chinese virus'.

He is scum.

Re: Facebook donates emergency reserve of 720k masks

#89

Post by rvnx »

nullc wrote: post #32
rvnx wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and what about the 1'500'000 gloves they were hoarding ? wildfires too ?

Characterizing preparedness as 'hording' is a socially toxic behavior which will discourage future preparedness. It's not like they had plans to sell them for price gouging purposes nor did they purchase them immediately ahead of a crisis and create/contribute to a shortage or anything anti-social like that. For durable emergency supplies like masks. all of us should, if we're able, be maintaining a supply outside of…

haha, we don't talk about the same zuck :)
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