 Everyone at this point is kind of on their own, making ready for being able to reuse, especially masks, but also things like gowns and plastic sheets to be able to keep our barriers when we're doing difficult procedures with patients. Doctors around the country, such as Denver-based ER doctor Case Newsom, are running dangerously low on the N95 mask, which protocol says they should wear and then dispose of every time they walk out of an infected patient's room. So they're reusing the same masks repeatedly. My colleagues are busy at work creating UV decontamination ovens on their own because those are expensive and difficult to come by, but easy enough to produce. Several of them have in fact learned how to sew so they can make their own masks if we run fully out. The federal government estimates that medical professionals will need 3.5 billion masks if the most dire projections are borne out. The U.S. had about 1% of that number on hand at the beginning of March. Charities and major corporations have donated masks to hospitals and manufacturers like Honeywell and 3M have stepped up production. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has asked President Trump to use the Defense Production Act to force companies to start making masks, and yet official channels likely won't come close to meeting the needs of healthcare workers so some technologists are taking matters into their own hands. But will government officials adhere to existing regulations and slow down these efforts? And if we could manufacture enough masks for the entire population, would it be possible to hasten the end of the extreme social distancing crippling our economy? We are a group of engineers, entrepreneurs, and problem solvers focused on prototyping and manufacturing N95 masks domestically. Matt Chisholm is a spokesperson for the Open PPE Project, which is developing a protocol for production of N95 grade masks, which experts believe provide fairly reliable protection against COVID-19. They're planning to open their own factory in Michigan and to develop a manufacturing blueprint that anyone can use. Masks don't seem like they would be an extremely complicated product to manufacture, so what have the biggest and most surprising challenge has been so far in undertaking this? One regulatory, the regulatory state. Two, some of the materials in the beginning, it just took some time to find the right sources for them. One of the biggest inputs into our mask is a material called melt-blown polypropylene, but we have identified someone who can provide that to us. Surgical masks require FDA approval, though the agency relaxed its guidelines in late March. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, a division of the CDC, regulates filtration mask factories. According to Chisholm, an official with the agency told his team that it will take 45 to 90 days to get approval for a new mask production facility. That poses some challenges for the current crisis we're in. You could theoretically end up with 45 to 90 days worth of supplies that are in a warehouse instead of out on the frontline saving lives. One thing we've recommended is that we allow universities who have the capabilities to do testing on masks to at minimum maybe be involved in this process to give the approval on some of these N95 masks and other personal protective equipment. Meanwhile, 3D printing enthusiasts are side-stepping regulatory approval by teaching people how to make their own masks. The DIY mask approach has taken off in the Czech Republic in particular where surgical masks sewing efforts are being coordinated over the internet by providing instructions, tips, and mapping facilities in areas where masks are most needed. The CDC is stating that we're to be using bandanas if it comes down to it. I think I would certainly trust the capacity of any physician or nurse to be able to at least visibly inspect the quality of the material that they've been given to be better than a single ply T-shirt or cloth fiber. I understand that it's not a perfect solution, but that being said, anything I think would be better than the sort of last resort of people having to formulate their own. How difficult would it be for doctors who still would prefer something like that to a bandana to bring that into a hospital to protect themselves? Would the hospital, you know, stop them at the door and say, you know, no unauthorized masks or would it still potentially be of service? It's really hard to question a physician if they're bringing in something that they've done their research on to know that it's an adequate level of protection. You cannot look at every single person's practices at keeping themselves clean and not infecting people. So the fact that they're effectively already running out actually lends a little bit of an opportunity for these sort of, I guess you could call it like gorilla industry actors to come in with new novel devices. Some say that ubiquitous mask wearing could make it safe to end extreme social distancing, but public health agencies have issued conflicting information about their efficacy. If you do not have any respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough, or runny nose, you do not need to wear a medical mask like this one. Mask alone can give you a false feeling of protection and can even be a source of infection when not used correctly. On February 29th, the US search and general urged the public to stop buying masks, claiming they're ineffective in stopping the transmission of COVID-19, and could even increase one's likelihood of catching it. The CDC and WHO have recommended mask wearing only for those in direct contact with infected individuals, but critics say this is inaccurate and that public health officials may have purposely spread misinformation to discourage a run on masks, making it even harder for doctors, nurses, and first responders to obtain them. Mask wearing is widespread in Hong Kong and Taiwan, which seems to have controlled COVID-19 without prolonged lockdowns. Hong Kong public health officials have called for mask wearing on public transit and in the workplace. There's evidence that masks help stop the spread of the flu. And though strong evidence that face masks prevent respiratory infections is still scarce due to a lack of rigorous study according to a March 2020 paper published in the Lancet, there is a chance that community transmission might be reduced if everyone wear face masks. Oxford researcher Elaine Fong co-authored that paper. We should prioritize the healthcare workers first, but I don't think this should be the rationale to tell the public that face mask is not effective. We highlighted the distinction between the absence of evidence and evidence of absence. How would you rationalize in that case a universal face mask policy? For coronavirus, there's some evidence showing that people who have been infected but have not have the symptom onset could transmit the virus to others without even knowing that. In Asian countries, it's more likely to be a civic duty for the people to wear the face mask. We think the universal face mask policy during the pandemic could help to prevent the stigmatization on people who have wear the face mask if supply permits. Probably not a place to speculate on the role masks will play beyond medical personnel. After we beat COVID-19, I'm not sure what the demand is going to look like for masks. I assume there might be more people who wear them when they're sick. We weren't prepared for this. We need to get back to good and make sure we can arm our frontline personnel equipment we need. We also have to be ready for what any pandemic in the future could bring and manufacturing readiness could really help that. And Newsom asks that anyone with extra N95 masks or other essential medical gear donate them to medical professionals to help adjust to this new reality. It's the nature of our work that we are touching patients that have respiratory problems and we really would benefit from those masks. I'm literally witnessing colleagues of mine learning how to hunker down and like do protective measures. I mean that I didn't learn any of that in my residency you know how to decontaminate your own masks and stuff. The fact that this is all happening point of care when the need arises goes to show the level of unpreparedness.