CHAS,

I receive the daily digest, so I don't respond to individual posts, but today is light and this follows #1, masks. I don't have employees or children in school, and merely go to the store when needed or occasionally to an outdoor venue with mask and 3-4 m separation between people. 

The limits of credulity are exceeded if the USA cannot manufacture adequate masks and PPE at this time, an inference of pretext or malfeasance is raised. I realize that late March-April was crazy, but we've had six months to address the supply chain. In April, I bought 100 cheap masks, $1 each for my family and neighbors and I still have half of them, I'm good for my needs, tho it's gong to be a while, lockdown and no travel for at least another six months. Yesterday, Wisconsin issued another 60-day emergency declaration https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/WIGOV/2020/09/22/file_attachments/1552234/EO090-DeclaringPublicHealthEmergency.pdf

I point out that DPA could have been invoked (in February) to ramp up critical PPE needs, but it was not, even tho I repeatedly called Congress (starting in late March) to advocate "get going on DPA ..." I'm quite sure if we needed bullets, it would have happened. Whatever the issues in securing appropriate polymer film, industrial sewing, etc should have addressed a long time ago. Not my area, but if someone came to me in mid-April, asking for help, I'm pretty sure it would have been done by now. Yowser!

We are where we're at. Put your own oxygen mask on first, I fear it's going to get worse soon, but I hope not. A few days ago I heard an interesting (9 min) radio interview about modeling virus spread and here's a link to it https://cpa.ds.npr.org/michigan/audio/2020/09/SS_20200916_Piret_COVID_Math.mp3

and link to a You Tube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K_BjXRe-wk

in case you know someone who doesn't understand virus spread. Of course, these are simple models, but they illustrate. 

Finally, if you've not read the editorial in Science 369, 6510 (p. 1409) 18 Sept 2020 doi: 10.1126/science.abe7391 I suggest you do so. Big part of our current problem.

Stay safe!

Joe Sabol

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: DCHAS-L Digest - 21 Sep 2020 to 22 Sep 2020 (#2020-173)
From: "DCHAS-L automatic digest system" <listserv**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Date: Wed, September 23, 2020 12:00 am
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LISTS.PRINCETON.EDU
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Wed, September 23, 2020 12:00 am, DCHAS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> There are 2 messages totaling 363 lines in this issue.
>
> Topics of the day:
>
> 1. Washington Post: The N95 shortage America can’t seem to fix
> 2. Website Updates - Electrical Safety Alert - Followup
>
> ---
> For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2020 09:20:40 -0400
>
From: ILPI Support <info**At_Symbol_Here**ILPI.COM>
> Subject: Washington Post: The N95 shortage America can’t seem to fix
>
> I saw this article in The Washington Post so I thought I’d post it and add some comments of my own as an N95/N99 vendor: "The N95 shortage America can’t seem to fix”: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/local/news/n-95-shortage-covid/ The intro line is:
>
> Nurses and doctors depend on respirator masks to protect them from covid-19. So why are we still running low on an item that once cost around $1?
>
>
From my N95 vendor perspective, things seem a lot better than we were seeing back in April/May. Heartbreaking crazy calls from the medical world have basically tapered off. The government sector seems better, too - various counties in the northeast have been laying in stockpiles to prepare for a second wave and election boards have reported to me that they are well stocked on PPE and signage for the general election.
>
> Nonetheless, demand/interest is still high. We’ve been running a waitlist for non-medical NIOSH N95’s that we aren’t getting until December. Just yesterday, we got in our first shipment of new NIOSH N95’s from a vendor that quite literally just opened a factory in Paterson, NJ. The company is brand new (ribbon cutting at the factory was less than two weeks ago), so they have no track record at all, however given the made in USA imprimatur, NIOSH-approval, and current supply, they charge a premium price for these. As a result, we are reluctantly asking $5 each just to make a modest profit, more than double what we charge for our (unavailable) regular ones. For perspective, the list price on many common 3M styles is well below $2 each.
>
> I waited until these physically arrived to put them on sale or announce them publicly. While we had sent out an email to a few dozen waitlist folks to give them a heads up, I thought that $5 price would put people off. We even broke down packs so folks could try 2 or 5 masks before committing to a full box (50 masks) because we make these items non-returnable. I expected significant price resistance. Boy was I wrong on that. A small flood of orders for 5 packs and boxes came right in. Strong demand even at this price - I am trying to figure out how much of this is the made in US vs immediate availability vs our explicitly offering them to the general public on this round (we were vetting for essential use previously).
>
> BTW, here’s why we decided to drop the essential use screen on this round of sales. The masks we carry are not FDA-approved and are therefore not considered “surgical”. Export of N95’s and N99’s had been restricted under a FEMA final rule that was partly expired on August 10. See https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2020-17467.pdf On August 10, FEMA took non-medical N95 and N99’s off that list, citing ample supply. Some highlights from this document; red text my emphasis:
> • FEMA is continuing the designation of N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirators as covered materials, with one modification. In the original temporary final rule, FEMA designated “N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirators, including devices that are disposable half-face-piece non-powered air-purifying particulate respirators intended for use to cover the nose and mouth of the wearer to help reduce wearer exposure to pathogenic biological airborne particulates.” This temporary final rule modifies the existing language by adding the word, “surgical” to clarify the types of N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirators subject to this order. N95 respirators for medical use are still subject to high demand within the United States, and supply is not expected to catch up with demand until January 2021. As of August 4, 2020, FEMA had open requests for over 6 million N95 respirators from SLTT jurisdictions. Because this demand is specific to surgical N95 respirators and does not include industrial respirators, FEMA is clarifying that the list only covers surgical N95 respirators.
>
> • •?• FEMA is continuing the designation of PPE surgical masks as covered materials due to the continued inability of domestic supply to meet current demands. As of August 4, 2020, FEMA had open requests for over 28 million surgical masks from SLTT jurisdictions.
>
> • •?• FEMA is also continuing the designation of PPE gloves or surgical gloves as covered materials, with modification. FEMA is narrowing the scope of the materials covered to PPE nitrile gloves, specifically those defined at 21 CFR 880.6250 (exam gloves) and 878.4460 (surgical gloves) and other such nitrile gloves intended for the same purposes. Domestic supply for latex and vinyl examination and surgical gloves has largely caught up with demand, but there is still a significant shortage of nitrile gloves. As of August 4, 2020, FEMA had open requests for over 139 million nitrile gloves from SLTT jurisdictions.
>
> This info is a bit dated, but still impressive. The surgical-rated mask shortage is wild, but the gloves shortage is crazy. Everyone asks about gloves when they call. On the good news side, we are expecting prices to start coming down in early 2021 for N99/N95’s, barring a catastrophic escalation of the pandemic.
>
> Finally, I’ve noticed that prices on ear loop masks (non-N95, non-NIOSH) have been collapsing due to ample supply from China. Of course, these provide only minimal protection, but at least they offer something when you don’t have a better mask available.
>
> Rob Toreki
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2020 18:35:26 -0400
>
From: rpalluzi**At_Symbol_Here**VERIZON.NET
> Subject: Re: Website Updates - Electrical Safety Alert - Followup
>
> [Message contains invalid MIME fields or encoding and could not be processed]
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of DCHAS-L Digest - 21 Sep 2020 to 22 Sep 2020 (#2020-173)
> **************************************************************
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