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Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

nytimes.com

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Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#91

Post by Scoundreller »

GuB-42 wrote: post #26

> a search for N95s yields a welter of vendors hawking KN95 masks, a Chinese-made equivalent that researchers say is less effective Any source for that? From what I've seen, N95, KN95, FFP2 and others are pretty much equivalent. There are some small differences but none that significantly affect the level of protection. There are certainly differences between manufacturers, and maybe there are more fake KN95 than the…

For reasons I don’t fully understand, NIOSH absolutely requires head bands to be N95 certified. NIOSH believes a good fit is difficult enough with ear loops that they’ll never certify them.

Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#92

Post by jjeaff »

johnchristopher wrote: post #76
lloydarmbrust wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't agree with this. I run ArmbrustUSA and can make about 1MM masks per day, and we started at the same time as this company. I think they are just bad at sales. We have government and hospital contracts. But, we are really good at sales. My team is really good at sales. Previously, My President and head of sales ran a medical sales division at a company with 300 sales people. We have about 17 sales folks. And we…

> When we fully automated it later this year we will be able to sell our masks much much cheaper than China can. Is not shipping from China to the US a big part of the cost savings ?

When things like masks are shipped from china via container, the shipping cost per unit ends up being exceedingly small. Probably less than a penny per mask.

Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#93

Post by jjeaff »

whalesalad wrote: post #57

This guy isn’t hustling as hard as he should be. If you can’t get deals because of the old boys club of buyers and suppliers you gotta do some guerrilla marketing. Learn which hospitals are struggling with masks. Lease a bunch of U-Haul/Ryder trucks and fill them with masks. Park them in front of the hospitals with massive banners on the side: “50,000 made in USA n95 masks inside. Call 555-555-5555” Pretty soon you’l…

He got a NYT article. That takes some hustle.

Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#94

Post by hilbert42 »

Fucking hell. Do we have to dig up General Groves and Oppenheimer to find people with sufficient organizing skills to get the COVID-19 Jobs done?

What the hell's gone wrong with the US? (If this were the early/mid 1940s then the AXIS powers would have won!)

Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#95

Post by yellowapple »

whalesalad wrote: post #57

This guy isn’t hustling as hard as he should be. If you can’t get deals because of the old boys club of buyers and suppliers you gotta do some guerrilla marketing. Learn which hospitals are struggling with masks. Lease a bunch of U-Haul/Ryder trucks and fill them with masks. Park them in front of the hospitals with massive banners on the side: “50,000 made in USA n95 masks inside. Call 555-555-5555” Pretty soon you’l…

Hell, maybe start naming and shaming hospitals that are too stingy to buy the masks that are actually domestically available. I'd personally be interested in knowing which hospitals in my town put saving a couple cents on Chinese masks over the safety of their employees and patients.

Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#96

Post by x0x0 »

pembrook wrote: post #16

> These businesses must overcome the ingrained purchasing habits of hospital systems, medical supply distributors and state governments. I’m guessing this is the real crux of the problem. They’re trying to sell to some of the most glacial organizations on planet. The bigger the organization, the slower it moves. Purchasing cycles can take anywhere from 6 months to YEARS if you’re talking big business or government. T…

> The bigger the organization, the slower it moves.

That is in some ways true. However, the ability to manage a complex sales process is a good proxy for ability to manage customer stakeholders and do the project planning and management required for success.

eg if you can't manage a complex sales process, the probability a vendor is mature enough to ship eg 2mm masks/month on time, with appropriate quality levels, and with the resources to manage production disruptions is quite low. And that's what hospital systems want to buy.

Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#98

Post by onethought »

pessimizer wrote: post #53
onethought wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people have actual breathing conditions (pollution sensitive, allergies etc) that require a proper sealed mask, without the valve the seal will often break. Valves with a diffuser cap that stops the air jetting out are probably the best if you have this restriction.

If those people need a proper sealed mask now, they also needed a proper sealed mask before covid-19. In actuality they were not wearing a mask at all unless they were either Japanese or usually in a hospital/nursing home/hospice and on a short trip outside to see a specialist. That being said, I have breathing problems and the combination of masks and cold weather is awful. I'd love to wear something that released t…

Yes. I meant people who wore masks before Covid.

Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#99

Post by jdsully »

In Canada KN95 masks are easily available but nobody in the medical community will use them. I have friends going to work with vulnerable populations using nearly worthless surgical masks because there "aren't enough N95s" even though KN95 is basically the same spec.

Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#100

Post by _v7gu »

pinky1417 wrote: post #83
_v7gu wrote: post #25

Thankfully they are not valved, people who wear valved masks are worse than anti-maskers.

Worse than anti-maskers? At least someone wearing a valved mask is reducing the risk that he/she will get COVID in the first place and, thus, become a spreader. Masks that don't filter exhalations can still contribute to reducing R0.

Anti-maskers mostly don't acknowledge COVID as a risk. Valve-wearers do acknowledge that COVID is a risk, but choose to disregard others' health anyway. One is dumb, but the other is malicious.
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