NEW:
Manufacturers, unions, medic have joined forces to tell Government to “unleash a national effort” to redeploy mothballed factories to making Personal Protective Equipment for key health workers in the UK..has been done for ventilators, not yet PPE
Coming up on #BBCNewsTen
Manufacturers, unions, medic have joined forces to tell Government to “unleash a national effort” to redeploy mothballed factories to making Personal Protective Equipment for key health workers in the UK..has been done for ventilators, not yet PPE
Coming up on #BBCNewsTen
Unite, Unison unions, the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nursing and industry groups Make UK and the aerospace group ADS, have all signed up to a “call for arms” so that “UK PLC can swing into action” to supply masks, visors, scrubs, gowns etc .../2
The unprecedented collection of representatives of industry and workers also called for temporary changes to copyright and patents to address restrictions to manufacturing of protective equipment in this emergency... /3
Government does not accept there is any shortage, says it is using two stockpiles - for No Deal and pandemic flu - and that logistics glitches have been dealt with, with army help, and that it has issued 400m pieces of PPE (though yet to list out what they are) .../4
Government not done what it did for ventilators, & actively tried to arrange effort to surge domestic PPE supply, but locally trusts & medics, even a Cabinet min have been arranging local supplies of PPE for wards from factories, universities, schools, 3D printing enthusiasts../5
One issue here is that we don’t know how big stockpile is, and in particular whether this Coronavirus epidemic will be longer than the planned for flu one (as there’s no vaccine) whether it requires more PPE, & will be burned through more quickly than flu plans... /6
What we do know is global run on this stuff - talking billions of items - 600m masks for France, 90m masks a month for Italy, 500m masks for California...massive EU joint procurement, at same time regular supply from China constrained... most nations upping domestic capacity.. /7
More than that - President Trump has just invoked Defense Procurement Act “against 3M” which makes most effective protective masks & has already doubled production - his adviser expressing concern some PPE is being exported. Powers could allow US Govt to control distribution. /8
Unthinkable things happening such as this every day - & many in industry and on frontline baffled as to why domestic production capacity not yet marshalled here -ahead of time.
As said before, we do have a respirator factory here already, but production not reserved for UK../9
As said before, we do have a respirator factory here already, but production not reserved for UK../9
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President Trump invokes Korean War-era Defense Production Act for masks to use “all authority available to acquire, from any appropriate subsidiary or affiliate of 3M Company, the number of N-95 respirators Administrator determines to be appropriate”
whitehouse.gov/presidential-a…
President Trump invokes Korean War-era Defense Production Act for masks to use “all authority available to acquire, from any appropriate subsidiary or affiliate of 3M Company, the number of N-95 respirators Administrator determines to be appropriate”
whitehouse.gov/presidential-a…
FUll Story here: Coronavirus: 'Wartime effort' needed to make protective gear bbc.co.uk/news/business-…
From POTUS - suggestion is he was unhappy with them exporting - but they have manufacturing all around the world, including UK, Poland, China...
Here German politicians accusing US of “modern piracy” after 200k 3M respirators bought for Berlin emergency responders diverted to US from Far East factory...
international supply chains are breaking down amid totally predictable pandemic protectionism
m.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/usa-fan…
international supply chains are breaking down amid totally predictable pandemic protectionism
m.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/usa-fan…
To be clear the White House invoked the DPA not just to stop 3M exporting masks but also to get it to divert its foreign production to the USA...
Again - as said here for 2 weeks, the UKG strategy as regards the UK respirator facility, & domestic production generally, matters.
Again - as said here for 2 weeks, the UKG strategy as regards the UK respirator facility, & domestic production generally, matters.
Here the 3M CEO, who doubled production in January, tries to explain that US export bans will affect countries which critically need supply, and will backfire as countries take retaliatory action
And here’s Canadian PM Trudeau responding after 3M told to stop supplying Canada, that “it would be a mistake” and the US Gov is also dependent on Canadian Pharma, medics, nurses
incredible tale - NBC reporting as part of US Federal Government effort to keep PPE & masks especially, they have seen a letter instructing US Aid funded relief efforts around the world to tell them about PPE that could be made available to US Govt
nbcnews.to/3dRTrL8
nbcnews.to/3dRTrL8
GP telling my BBC NW colleague today they’ve had to buy PPE from a DIY shop....
Hospital trust an hour after Downing St presser saying “urgent need” for scrubs from public donations for Macclesfield Hospital...
My @BBCNWT colleagues film a Wilmslow NHS GP at a Covid “hot site” assessment centre explaining official supplies of a sleeveless apron sufficient for “sandwich-making”...basic surgical mask, how they went to a DIY store to buy proper PPE, and their appeal for local donations...
And then at the end family of @LesDennis turn up with loads of goggles to give to the doctors... filmed by @MsGillD
Strikes me as unlikely that the “family of Les Dennis” featured prominently on the pandemic supply chain for Personal Protective Equipment for GPs emergency planning.
Super impressive from Apple... 20m masks, and 1m flat packing face shields a week for medics...
3M announces that it will still export some US production to Canada, but also import 166 million N95 respirator face masks from elsewhere in world, primarily China in next 3 months...ie it will import more for US from rest of world, than made domestically news.3m.com/blog/3m-storie…
basic maths on this - 3M doubled production globally of respirator masks to about 90 million masks/month. If 35m made in US being kept for mainly US, and now also 55 million from the rest of the world “primarily China” in next 3 months - that leaves few for UK/ Europe etc...
