‘Brutal education’: Inside the mad rush to make masks to battle COVID-19

In a normal April, in a normal year, Bob Preston might be found strolling through the campus of McMaster University, or lingering in a coffee shop, working out project ideas on a pad of paper. Classes would have ended on schedule, students would be studying for exams and for engineering professors like him, “the pressure would be off,” he said.

More than 11 million face masks arrived in Canada in recent days, including a shipment of one million masks delivered to a Hamilton warehouse, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday. Amid surging demand, those attempts are increasingly frustrated by both shortages and export controls — the measures imposed by countries to ban or curb the sale of goods to foreign buyers.

Nevertheless, fears of hospitals being overwhelmed by a wave of infected patients have prompted Trudeau to call for a nationwide mobilization of industry to make PPE and crucial medical devices such as ventilators. As the engineers at McMaster have quickly learned, realizing that goal means overcoming significant barriers presented by complex global supply chains and limited domestic production – all while racing against a ticking clock.

As a result, in just over two weeks, the McMaster project quickly evolved from establishing a manufacturing method for surgical and more sophisticated N95 masks to building an entire supply chain from the bottom up. That’s left the McMaster engineers to scour Canada for a domestic factory capable of churning out the fabric, said Selvaganapathy, who oversees five teams, including one dedicated entirely to sourcing materials.“We have discovered very limited capability to make filtration material in Canada, he said. “It all comes from the U.S. and elsewhere and under the current scenario, those sources are blocked.

The problem is regular supply chains are out of whack now and the new ones may not have the same kind of quality control

Do health care workers in Ontario have the right to refuse unsafe work under the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act? Asking for the mother of 2 young children.

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