This Miami supplier is manufacturing millions of masks. Why won't anyone buy them?

[TexasTowelie]

As the COVID-19 pandemic roared to life this spring, the U.S. found itself faced with an acute shortage of masks and other personal protective equipment to support front-line workers.

The issue was highlighted by images of American doctors and nurses wearing garbage bags in lieu of proper medical garb. The photos went viral.

Today, America’s PPE supply chain is lurching back to life. Yet many hospitals, businesses and state and local governments still remain short on medical-grade face coverings as they continue to exhaust existing supplies.

DemeTech, a Miami-area medical device manufacturer, has been trying to bridge the gap by hiring hundreds of new workers to make Food and Drug Administration-approved surgical masks — which only look like ones you’d buy at a corner store — and Centers for Disease Control-approved N95 respirators. While others in Florida, including Miami Gardens-based ICO Uniforms, have also begun producing face coverings, DemeTech appears to be the only firm in the state to have begun turning out N95 respirators that have been tested and approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Read more: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article246582323.html

[Mike 03]

1. For civilians, this is an affordable alternative to buying 3M masks on Ebay

where I recently saw masks selling for $15 per unit. That is, if they sell to non-medical professionals.

Cost remains the biggest factor — not because masks are expensive, but because DemeTech pays its workers more than firms in China do. It currently sells N95 cup-style respirators for $79.99 for a box of 20.

“To make a product in the U.S., you have to pay a living wage,” said Kim Glas, president and CEO of the National Council of Textile Organizations, a trade group whose members include mask makers.