The epidemic has driven up demand for material in N95 filters but materials are in short supply.

No Magic Factories

Given the Critical Component of Protective Masks is in Short Supply ramping up production to meet demand is not possible.

Nonwoven polypropylene has never been so popular. The industrial fabric is a critical component of the sophisticated face masks that protect medical workers from the new coronavirus. As the virus spreads around the world, those face masks are in short supply. Now nonwoven polypropylene is, too. Monadnock Non-Wovens LLC has been getting more than 100 calls and emails a day asking for huge quantities of nonwoven polypropylene. Some callers have offered luxury vacations to Monadnock employees to fulfill orders. Some customers are asking the Mt. Pocono, Pa.-based company for up to 200 tons of the material. The single machine on Monadnock’s production line for the mask-filter material makes about 1.5 tons a day. The company recently started a test run of a second machine and will add a third in the coming weeks that will triple output to around 30 tons a week. “Everyone thinks there is this magic factory somewhere,” HPK’s president, Michael Liberatore, said. “You can’t call up and order a million. It’s not how it works.”

CDC Q & A

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’t recommend that people wear face masks unless they are sick and need to be in public.

Q: Why?

A: Because the CDC is covering its ass knowing full well there is insufficient supply.

Schools Shut in Seattle Area

In the Seattle area, Schools Shut Down as Coronavirus Spreads.

A suburban Seattle school district launched the farthest-reaching school closures in the U.S. Thursday in an attempt to contain the coronavirus, directing more than 23,500 students to stay home for up to two weeks in a last-resort step that districts across the country are considering. The number of deaths in Washington state rose to 11 Thursday and confirmed cases jumped to 70 from 39 a day earlier, prompting companies including Microsoft Corp., Amazon Inc. and Facebook Inc. to encourage employees in the region to work from home. Ten of those fatalities have been in King County, where Seattle is located.

Rush Hour Traffic Jam Vanishes

The above explains what I noted before in Tweets of the Day: Seattle Rush Hour Suddenly Vanishes.

Proposed Takeover of Life Care Center in Kirkland WA

The Wall Street Journal reports Nursing Home at Center of Washington Coronavirus Outbreak Target of Criticism

Washington state officials are considering taking over a nursing home tied to 10 deaths in the Covid-19 outbreak after the facility’s owners drew criticism from local officials and families for spotty and at times chaotic dissemination of information. At one point, a woman whose mother died at the facility this week of still-unknown causes said she was later contacted by a nursing-home staffer to say her mother was alive and well. The facility has been trying to get more protective gear, according to the head of a local health-care trade group. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday the state was seeking more gear from federal emergency stockpiles.

No Supplies Thus CDC Recommendation

Once again we can put a spotlight on the CDC's cover its ass recommendation against wearing face masks.

There are not enough masks to go around.

The CDC's recommendation is self-serving.

Still No Test Kits Either

More than 100 residents were in the facility when the outbreak was first confirmed a week ago. By Friday, authorities said 69 residents were still inside and 15 residents had been transferred to local hospitals in the prior 24 hours. Life Care, one of the largest U.S. nursing-home operators, didn’t respond to requests for comment. Life Care said in a statement Wednesday it didn’t know how the virus got into the 190-bed facility, and that it hadn’t been provided test kits.

Meanwhile, There's a State of Emergency in New York and and four new deaths in the US with 90 new US cases.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock