<story><title>In Pursuit of PPE</title><url>https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2010025</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>reggieband</author><text>When I read this kind of thing I am happy we live in a society that allows the free discussion of information. It is no exaggeration to say this kind of honest description of events by a senior health official could have lead to imprisonment or worse in many historical and some modern contexts.&lt;p&gt;Given how many people are currently unemployed - how is it that we can fail to ramp up our own ability to produce this needed equipment? There is no shortage of labor. Forget about the failures to prepare in January, February and March - what are we doing right now to prepare for the next 6 months?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m looking around for a leader who has that vision. Governors are blaming the federal government. The federal government is blaming China and the WHO. Who is organizing the effort to fill the gaps?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rhino369</author><text>&amp;gt;Given how many people are currently unemployed - how is it that we can fail to ramp up our own ability to produce this needed equipment? There is no shortage of labor.&lt;p&gt;Labor isn&amp;#x27;t the limiting factor.  You need machines, raw materials, supply chains.&lt;p&gt;There isn&amp;#x27;t an AWS for N95 mask manufacturing.</text></comment>
<story><title>In Pursuit of PPE</title><url>https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2010025</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>reggieband</author><text>When I read this kind of thing I am happy we live in a society that allows the free discussion of information. It is no exaggeration to say this kind of honest description of events by a senior health official could have lead to imprisonment or worse in many historical and some modern contexts.&lt;p&gt;Given how many people are currently unemployed - how is it that we can fail to ramp up our own ability to produce this needed equipment? There is no shortage of labor. Forget about the failures to prepare in January, February and March - what are we doing right now to prepare for the next 6 months?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m looking around for a leader who has that vision. Governors are blaming the federal government. The federal government is blaming China and the WHO. Who is organizing the effort to fill the gaps?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dboreham</author><text>The governor I watched talk about this (NY) said something completely different: he said if you know how to make PPE, call me. If need funding to spin up manufacturing, I&amp;#x27;ll get it for you. And so on. This was a week or two ago.</text></comment>