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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sdgla who wrote (1217787)	4/7/2020 12:20:28 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578302

That will help. Can we expect the first 2 mil to be shipped out in the morning?

To: Sdgla who wrote (1217787)	4/7/2020 12:47:10 AM
From: Wharf Rat	2 Recommendations Recommended By Brumar89 Heywood40 Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578302

We should prolly keep this mask story between the two of us. Halyard promised in its 2015 statement to design a “one-of-a-kind, high-speed machine” to help federal health planners solve a production problem that had bedeviled them for years. Officials had long assumed that a public health emergency would one day create a huge demand for the respirator masks known as N95s. But the difficulty of predicting when a pandemic or other crisis would strike meant stockpiled masks could pass their expiration dates while sitting on shelves. Halyard said its new machine would provide a just-in-time inventory alternative and avoid waste by enabling rapid and plentiful production when a crisis hit. “Pandemic preparedness in the United States is imperative to protecting health and saving lives, and respirator manufacturing capacity remains a critical gap in that preparedness,” Robin Robinson, then the director of BARDA, said in a statement at the time. Federal government spent millions to ramp up mask readiness, but that isn’t helping now By Jon Swaine April 3, 2020 at 1:27 p.m. EDT full article at washingtonpost.com In September 2018, the Trump administration received detailed plans for a new machine designed to churn out millions of protective respirator masks at high speed during a pandemic. The plans, submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by medical manufacturer O&M Halyard, were the culmination of a venture unveiled almost three years earlier by the Obama administration. But HHS did not proceed with making the machine. The project was one of two N95 mask ventures — totaling $9.8 million — that the federal government embarked on over the past five years to better prepare for pandemics. The other involves the development of reusable masks to replace the single-use variety currently so scarce that medical professionals are using theirs over and over. Expert panels have advised the government for at least 14 years that reusable masks were vital. That effort, like the quick mask machine, has not led to a single new mask for the government’s response. Sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter to track the outbreak. All stories linked in the newsletter are free to access. “The Halyard contract was part of an explicit strategy to ensure we could surge mask production in the next crisis,” said Nicole Lurie, who was the HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response under Barack Obama. “Now we’re dealing with the consequences of not having that capability.” Halyard said Thursday in a statement that its work on the government contract was completed in September 2018. A spokeswoman declined to give additional details. An HHS spokesperson, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Washington Post that although Halyard’s plans were feasible, no funding was available to build the machine. HHS’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, the department that solicited the Halyard design, had a budget of nearly $1.5 billion for 2020, according to an HHS report. Amid the current crisis, the design remains under consideration, according to the spokesperson, who said, “Implementing this design along with use of more proven mask manufacturing techniques are being considered by a supply chain task force to reduce N95 shortages.” In an interview with CNBC last week, Edward A. Pesicka, chief executive of Halyard’s parent company, Owens & Minor, said his company had already stepped up production of masks and other protective gear to its maximum. “We are in the process of actually expanding capacity, but that’s going to take probably five to six months to make sure that you have the capability to expand that capacity,” Pesicka said. He did not mention the firm’s work for the government on a high-speed machine. Pesicka did not respond to an email requesting comment. Making masks quickly The Obama administration and medical firm Halyard Health of Alpharetta, Ga., announced the project to develop a rapid pandemic mask production line in December 2015. In May 2018, another firm, Owens & Minor of Mechanicsville, Va., bought Halyard’s surgical clothing business to operate as a division named O&M Halyard. On the government side, the fast-mask project was an initiative of BARDA, a part of HHS that is responsible for creating countermeasures against pandemics, biochemical attacks and other threats. Halyard promised in its 2015 statement to design a “one-of-a-kind, high-speed machine” to help federal health planners solve a production problem that had bedeviled them for years. Officials had long assumed that a public health emergency would one day create a huge demand for the respirator masks known as N95s. But the difficulty of predicting when a pandemic or other crisis would strike meant stockpiled masks could pass their expiration dates while sitting on shelves. Halyard said its new machine would provide a just-in-time inventory alternative and avoid waste by enabling rapid and plentiful production when a crisis hit. “Pandemic preparedness in the United States is imperative to protecting health and saving lives, and respirator manufacturing capacity remains a critical gap in that preparedness,” Robin Robinson, then the director of BARDA, said in a statement at the time. continues at washingtonpost.com