Half a million N95 masks are on their way to New York and Seattle, manufacturer says

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

A large manufacturer of protective N95 masks for medical workers said it is shipping half a million masks to New York and Seattle, with arrivals starting Monday.

3M said it is ready to rush additional shipments across the country and will almost double production of the masks over the next year, to an annual rate of 2 billion masks worldwide. That is a bigger increase than the 30 percent boost the company announced Friday.

3M factories in South Dakota and Nebraska are now producing 35 million N95 masks a month, 90 percent of which the company is selling for healthcare workers after a change in law last week eliminated the threat of lawsuits from such sales.

The other 10 percent will go to industrial workers who are “also critical in this pandemic,” in sectors including energy, food and pharmaceuticals, 3M Chairman and CEO Mike Roman said in a statement Sunday.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/half-a-million-n95-masks-are-on-their-way-to-new-york-and-seattle-manufacturer-says/ar-BB11y8k9?li=BBnb4R7

[marble falls]

1. They raised the price of their swab packs from $50 to $150. How much are they gouging for ...

the masks?

[Hoyt]

4. Don't know what's fair, but if they are doubling annual production in short order,

there are likely increases in cos

If in fact, 3M tripled price without good reason, they’re a candidate for hefty fines under antigouging laws, bad publicity, and lost government contracts when Democrats take office.

[marble falls]

5. Retooling is one thing. Ramping up is another. What I learned as a production engineer ...

(my family owned a steel window and door company) was paying overtime adds little to costs providing there is no new tooling or new floor space. Labor represents 1/3 of the wholesale price. Doubling wages only only adds 25% to the final price, not enough to justify tripling the wholesale price.

If 3M is only adding shifts the price should not shift much at all. If they're retooling, they'd be weeks and months from delivery.

I'd bet the production model is similar to that of toilet paper production. No new tooling, just an expansion of production hours and utilities.

There is no reason to triple the price, especially in an emergency.

[Hoyt]

6. My point is where did you get they were tripling the price?

[marble falls]

7. https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213145818

[Hoyt]

9. You are using anecdotal evidence from a doctor's wife to say 3M is tripling price. If it even

happened, the doc was probably telling his wife that because she wanted to buy something expensive.

[marble falls]

10. And you're speculating on the motives of direct testimony ...

she has as much credibility as you or I.

The first cases of coronavirus were anecdotal.

This is the first report of 3M gouging.

[Hoyt]

11. I'm speculating that one doctor's wife saying her husband's office is paying 3 times for swabs is

hardly reason to believe it's true. I don't believe 3M would risk that without a reason. That reason might just be the transportation cost the poster in this section mentioned. Or it might be that the swabs were bought through a distributor who tripled the cost.

As my original post said, If it is true 3M tripled the cost, they better have good reason. So far, we don't have any credible evidence they did that.

[marble falls]

12. Well as long as you don't believe it, it must be wrong. Give it a week to develop.

I know, take this up with the wife, tell her that her husband is gaslighting her.

[Hoyt]

13. When you find some evidence, let me know.

[marble falls]

14. Working on it, I sent your comments to the wife.

[Hoyt]

15. Thanks. Ask her if she bought them directly from 3M or from a supplier that was selling out of old

stock?

Also get a price from her on the 3M masks that we are talking about.

If I'm wrong, I'll apologize to both of you, and let 3M know what I think of their price-gouging.

[Wellstone ruled]

8. Irony of this is,

3 M was about to close this operation and ship all the equipment to one of their Mexico plants. Little math is due here. Where ever you live you can figure out just how long it will take to haul those Masks to your town or city. This plant is located in Brookings South Dakota. 30 hrs to LA 26 hours to Vegas. And this would be freeway travel. Now for the plant in Nebraska,well the first 200 miles is two lane road until you hit I -80,so some one is sure as hell smoking something besides Ribs.

[Hoyt]

2. I think companies are gearing up -- in spite of trump. Medtronic, a large

manufacturer of ventilators and other medical devices is working 24 hours and expanded production. Other ventilator manufacturers have too.

Whether it will be in time, who knows.

[brewens]

3. Good news, but if they can be doing it now, they could have been doing it at least

three weeks ago. Burr was already tipping off his buddies about how bad it could be by then. The real date they should have been on this would have been before 2/27 when Burr was recorded. Really it should have been as soon as they had the information provided in that classified briefing, so we could have been even further ahead.