@kurth

Just stop. "Communist" party do not control most of the things, except some key areas.

And actully most of the small amd mid business state and approach is actually your best dream - similar to WWW times in US.

@kurth

For now it is around 90% of all masks and respirators that are being made in China.
And China is the only country that seriously ramped up production (in thr west all production icnrease happened in useless cloth masks part).

Yes, due to big profits it is lot of questionable products now. But it is not China fault, it is capitalism fault.

@jleo

I strongly suggest to post any Chinese products only after they have independent test that it matches N95 standard, even KN95 respirators do not match it usually (up to 70% of them).

And this "attachment" is really some markting genius idea (because he could not get masks production line :-)).

Pin Yang, mask manufacturer - China -

Due to strict regulation placed in US, the only acceptable mask that they can sell is N95 certified masks, which only 13 factories can have the certificate to produce it in China. UPDATE：08/04/2020 NOW THE CDC FINALLY ACCEPTED KN95 MASKS. Many country responded to covid-19 much earlier than US, so they came to the Chinese factories much earlier and purchased all future productions. For now, new orders will only be accepted in May-July, depending on the factory. On the other hand, normal medical (disposable) masks is not in short in China, people can get as many as they like.

New update, due to raw material price rocketed, the price for N95 masks has risen 10 fold of original. The price are confidential so i can just give you all a rough idea. I just had a US customer declined our quote, they cant rise the sale price due to state regulation of stabilizing market price. I have heard their domestic supply can get half price of what we quote, but i am not sure what was the quantity they can get from the US supplier, just hope they will be fine. Good luck to you all.

I have saw the news of New York hospitals were facing a major overwhelming situation. Probably this will be soon for other states. It is heart breaking. For those people who in need of masks and not price sensitive, i advise you go contact your Chinese friends and ask if they have any Chinese local to get some KN95 masks. Its Chinese equivalent of N95. It can not be sale in US supermarket but it was accepted by CDC to get for personal protection. Slightly overpriced but saves life.

Craig Reynolds, USA

My stepson’s father-in-law is the CEO of a pharmaceutical conglomerate in China (I will not for obvious reasons name the company). They converted their entire manufacturing facility over to produce KN95 masks. They offered to ship me as many as I wanted if I thought I could sell them and I was going to do just that, but now I don’t dare! Why?

Because some states have become so desperate that their governors have ordered the State Police (here’s looking at you New Jersey) to confiscate without compensation and redistribute to hospitals any PPE they become aware of. That has made the situation in the US just that much worse because people like me can get masks or other needed items are unwilling to risk having our inventory seized.

I and likely many others are unwilling to place a large order today, only to have it seized at the port upon arrival. I’m in California and I have heard nothing about that happening here yet, but anything can change in a day. Also, the federal government could suddenly order the seizure of any inbound PPE products privately purchased. I can’t take the chance and because of that, there is a lot of medical personnel dealing with a lack of supplies here that I could have helped remedy.

Oh, and before anybody starts making assumptions, I was ONLY going to sell in bulk to the medical community or first responder. Not retail and not to individuals. Also, it would have been at a standard markup, no price gouging, so don’t even go there with your comments or I will delete them and turn off commenting.

Danielle Fraser. Canada

One issue that people do not realize is that the cost of raw material varies with demand. Especially since the raw material suppliers may not even be able to obtain enough materiel to meet a sudden 50 fold increase in demand. So to get enough material, a company has to outbid other companies also wanting that raw material. So even if they want to there is no way to hold prices and if another company bids more than you, they may not get raw materials at all.

Most people have no clue about supply chain management and what it takes to ramp up production of something when there is a sudden demand surge.

Near where I live is a paper mill that is a major supplier of the paper used in masks. They were previously running its machines about 84 hours a week. Now they have doubled that. to 168 hours a week. That is all the hours available.

A new paper machine takes a couple years to order, build and install. As well the special sort of pulp needed can only come from certain trees and there are only so many such trees available.

Newsprint and other paper machines cannot make paper of the needed grade.

Peter Elliott,

It’s hard to know how to write this without being rude, but I’ll try. Donald Trump put 25% tariffs on face masks some time ago. The face mask manufacturers eventually found other markets in other parts of the world. Those other parts of the world are now asking for as many masks as can be supplied and the supply lines are in place to those countries, not to America. Donald Trump kindly offered to temporarily suspend the 25% tariffs for the duration of the pandemic.

If you were a face mask manufacturer, would you establish another supply line to sell to the US, only to get a tariff slapped back on in 6 months? And that when other countries are taking all you can manufacture. I know I wouldn’t. Once bitten twice shy.

So to all those people getting righteous about all medical supplies - not just face masks, it’s called chickens coming home to roost and I’m really sorry for your pain, but please place the blame where it belongs - Trump tariffs.

S J Zhu, China: Here are some facts:

FDA keeps denying KN95 masks are reliable though WHO makes sure they are nearly equal to N95 ones.

FDA charges management fees of 5000 dollars per year from manufacturers for a N95 certification. In common years, this is barely all the profit of selling N95 masks. So facilities gave up using that production line, while they reuse it for America specially this month but finally refused by FDA because the overdue certification.

Trump claims Chinese products to be poisonous but American factories were importing semi-finished masks and assembling so that they can claim these all American-produced masks and sell them at maybe a 5-time price.

Oh, and for the last thing, China now ban semi-finished medical equipment all.

In proper time ? What is proper time ? I feel something bad from this answer...

@Vitaly, You are very critical of the lifestyle of people who live in capitalist countries. Criticism is beneficial. But it must not be unilateral, otherwise it becomes propaganda. Can you tell us about the shortcomings of communism?

@Vitaliy....I've never played a computer game in my life. When I waste time now, it's on your forum lol! These days were made for art and music. And come on , amigo...working for someone elses dream is wasting your life.

@kurth

.sitting at home ...and not wasting days working for some capitalist scum ...should be the greatest learning experience of the decade. People have been brainwashed into thinking working is good for them. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Working and socializing is very good. You just need to change social system for work to become most cherished thing in people life.

While sitting home playing computer games and watching stupid shows is that ruling class wants. Remember - they are authors of this whole show (with real virus playing main role!).

@kurth

We now have 4 billion people sitting at home and hundreds of millions without work already.

So, we could live with 200-300 thousands of mostly rich people being 25 days in closed camp. As I already said, but ruling class could not spank itself.

on january 1st, even if the govts had mailed every person in the world an n95 mask, less than10% would have used it.

On January 1st they needed tiny amount of masks that must be provided to all travellers, as well as proper camps must be organized, instead of self-isolation, for them.

On present day it is no problem to provide proper masks and force using them. And clearly explain whole plan, step by step.

But all we have for now is hysteria and fear. And mass media putting more sticks to this

Typical strange thingy. How "direct splash protection" help with coronavirus?

Why all this shitty Apple idea to make face shields? Especially considered that Apple is typical company that act against people intrests.

LensCoat making masks from that they have... for medics

Only way it works is if virus will be so shocked and confused that it'll die instantly.