It wouldn't even be hard, many businesses would love to help, they just need to be labeled essential (so their people can show up) and given reasonable plans to make something given their resources.
In short what the world needs is plans on how to make n95 mask making machines. There are plenty of manufacturers who can take those plans and build the machines in a few weeks (I'm guessing on time line but it seems reasonable) from there we can make as many masks as we have raw materials for.
Where are you seeing reports on piles of NWF in China? I'd be very interested in this. Seems the masks/filters are pretty easy to make once you have the NWF
I believe that you are wrong. We can make the machines in a few weeks. It wouldn't be efficient, but we can do it. Take thousands of machinests, give them plans, divide them up, and build. Note that overlap means that you get multiple copies of the parts.
Of course the traditional way to build these machines is more efficient.
> There are plenty of manufacturers who can take those plans and build the machines in a few weeks (I'm guessing on time line but it seems reasonable) from there we can make as many masks as we have raw materials for.
If it was reasonable, why hasn’t it happened? Seems like it’s either not possible, or not worth it at whatever price points the masks would sell at, which is basically the same thing.
The material required to make N95 masks is in short supply because it is tricky to make. It takes a very long time to set up new machines to make this material. I recall reading 6 months.
NPR wrote a good piece about this, if my memory serves me right. I apologise for the lack of sources.
Is it worth it? If because of an inefficient process I need to charge $1000 for a mask to break even should I bother at all, or just let the more efficient producers do it for a few cents. (remember break even costs not profit)
the key is raw material, e.g the heart of a mask is Polypropylene, the machine to produce masks is available to purchase actually, but you can't find those raw materials in the US
In short what the world needs is plans on how to make n95 mask making machines. There are plenty of manufacturers who can take those plans and build the machines in a few weeks (I'm guessing on time line but it seems reasonable) from there we can make as many masks as we have raw materials for.