by Hank Boerner – Chair & Chief Strategist – G&A Institute and the G&A team   — continuing a new conversation about the corporate and investor response the coronavirus crisis…continuing the second week of the conversation…   Post #3 – March 23 – first of two 

Introduction
These are the times when actions and reactions to crisis helps to define the character of the corporation and shape the public profiles of  each of the corporate citizens. For companies, these are not easy times.
Many important decisions are to be made, many priorities set in an environment of unknown unknowns — and there are many stakeholders to be taken care of.
The good news:  Corporations are not waiting to be part of the solution – decisions are being made quickly and action is being taken to protect the enterprise.  This is no easy task while protecting the corporate brand, the reputation for being a good corporate citizen, watching out for the investor base and the employee base — and all stakeholders.
What are companies doing? How will the decisions made at the top in turn affect the company’s employees, customers, hometowns, suppliers, other stakeholders? Stay tuned to our continuing commentary.

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Important Crisis Talk About PPE – Personal Protective Equipment
About those face masks…”PPE’s” for this conversation include protective clothing, gowns, face shields, goggles, face masks, gloves, and other equipment designed to protect the wearer.
These could be those PPEs especially designed for medical use (such as for use in surgery or dentistry) that are fluid-resistant, loose-fitting and disposable, for example. Many of the devices are regulated such as by FDA, or reviewed and registered with the agency.
Or the N95 that many refer to could be the ubiquitous industrial mask, tye disposable type, used in many industries.  It’s important to note that the medical version (“S”) is desperately needed in the medical crisis, of course.
And the corporate sector is stepping up to fill the gaps.
Many PPE items are in short supply. Right now, FDA is collaborating with manufacturers of surgical masks and gowns to “better understand” the supply chain issues related to the outbreak, and to deal with widespread shortages of products.
The U.S. government has strategic stockpiles of surgical (medical) N95s filtering facepiece respirators that exceed the manufacturers’ recommended “shelf life” — and so the Agency is considering whether or not to release the equipment during the crisis.
The good news is that many of the devices tested should provide the expected level of protection to the user. This varies by manufacturer and shelf life.
Manufacturers identified by CDC in its communications include 3M, Gerson, Medline/Alpha Portech, Kimberly-Clark, and Moldex. Other makers include Cardinal Health, Ansell, DACH, CM, Hakugen, Shanghai Dasheng, Yuanqin, and Winner. The CDC is providing guidance at: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/release-stockpiled-N95.html 
(Note: Kimberly-Clark also produces toilet paper, towels and diapers – items flying off consumer shelves these days.)
The N95 industrial mask is a different situation than the “s” model designed for medical use, since the N95 model is made for industrial and construction use (as examples) and not for medical care.
In a crisis such as this one, “something” would be better than nothing, or having medical workers fashion masks out of materials to try to be safe.
The “perfect” solution here would be the enemy of the good, as the saying goes. And so millions of N95 are pressed into action and industry is responding with donations.  And companies are in high gear to produce masks.
Background: With the masks generally in short supply, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is saying that the usual N95 respirators are not recommended for use by the general public to try protect themselves from respiratory diseases, including COVID-19. Also, people who are well should not be using surgical (face) masks to protect themselves from the virus.
Worn properly, the surgical mask (the “s”) can help to block large-particle droplets, splashes, sprays or splatter containing viruses or bacteria – but not small particles in the air transmitted by coughs, sneezes or medical procedures because of the loose fit (face mask, on the face). And the masks are suggested to be used just once and then discarded.
N95 Respirators generally are protective devices designed to achieve a fit tight and serve to filtrate airborne particles, exceeding the protection of the face mask. The design forms a seal around nose and mouth – as explained, there are both industrial and surgical version.
The industrial version is used in construction, food preparation, manufacturing, etc. The surgical version is the N95s, tested for various medical applications. Manufacture of these devices is regulated.
The N95s is in great demand for healthcare workers and the CDC is urging “conservation” of surgical masks and gowns (such as use of reusable gowns vs. single use) while supplies are being made available to medical professionals.

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3M – 24/7 Production Lines In Action
The company is the largest producer of the N95 respirator face mask – the global output was just upped to the target of 1.1 billion or 100 million monthly. Inside the U.S. the company makes 400 million-plus N95’s in a year. Investment is now being directed to produce 30% more over the next 12 months.
The company is advising consumers not to show up in stores for the masks  – production should be directed to the front lines, those caring for coronavirus-infected patients.
In response to the crisis, 3M is striving to produce 100 million masks per month going forward (the global output). Current production is 35 million per month. Healthcare workers will receive 90% of the production, and the rest will go to other sectors of the economy (like food, energy, pharm companies).
This week 500,000 respirators are going to sent to New York State/City and Seattle. The company also produces hand sanitizers, disinfectants and filtration solutions, and is working with government officials, customers and distributors worldwide to address the supply issue.

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Honeywell is expanding production of masks at its Smithfield, Rhode Island eye protection products plan to make N95 masks – and hiring 500 workers immediately to support the effort. The products will go to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the national stockpile. (VP Michael Pence talked about this in the weekend briefing – orders for “hundreds of millions of masks” were placed through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.)

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Dr. Anthony Fauci (head of NIH Allergy and Infectious Disease) said fresh supplies of masks will be reaching medical professionals in days, not weeks.
Note that the U.S. Congress expanded the U.S. PREP Act to ensure both types of N95 respirators will be available to hospitals and healthcare workers.

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Challenge: Mike Bowen, principal of Prestige Ameritech (a mask maker in Texas), told The New York Times that 95% of face masks are made outside of the U.S. including by U.S.-headquartered companies that moves production offshore. He’s getting 100 calls a day now for his products.
Challenge: Even for those companies making masks in the United States, we cite the example of Strong Manufacturing in Charlotte, North Carolina, making of 9 million masks each month. The raw materials come from Wuhan, China – ground zero of the coronavirus outbreak. The materials are not arriving (yet) – the boxes are on the dock in China.
Challenge: Just one facility here in New York City (the Columbia-Presbyterian system typically would use 4,000 N95 makes per day — and is now using 40,000 per day and expecting to double that in the crisis.

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And so — the Corporate Sector Responds
Apple:  CEO Tim Cook is going to donate millions of masks to healthcare workers in the U.S. and Europe (according to his weekend Tweet) – Vice President Michael Pence said that on the weekend White House Task Force briefing and the company CEO then confirmed this:
“Our teams at Apple have been working to help source supplies for healthcare providers fighting COVID-19. We’re donating millions of masks for health professionals in the US and Europe. To every one of the heroes on the front lines, we thank you” (CEO Tim Cook).
Tesla – CEO Elon Musk donated a truckload of PPEs (masks, gowns etc) to a UCLA Health center in California. We know this from Twitter tweeting. Musk told California Governor Gavin Newsom that 250,000 masks will be donated to California hospitals.
Hanes Brands – President Donald Trump at the weekend briefing talked about Hanes, the clothing maker, that is retrofitting factories to make face masks. The goal is to make 1.5 million masks a week, and working with Parkdale Mills America (they make the yarn for Hanes) and a consortium of companies, will ramp up to 5-to-6 million makes every week.
The company’s experts in supply chain and product development worked with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to develop the products and FDA has given its approval to masks that are not the traditional N95 but a prototype that can be used in N95s are not available.
The Hayner Hoyt Corp, a local company doing construction work at St. Joseph Health, in Syracuse (upstate New York) donated 1,200 face masks to the hospital. “I encourage other construction businesses and construction supply companies to see if they have any PPE that they can give to our healthcare providers during this critical time,” says the firm president, Jeremy Thurston. The hospital itself has reached out to doctors, dentists and vet offices to ask for donations of masks, gowns, eyewear, thermometers and other PPEs – something we will be seeing all over the nation to help to meet local shortages.

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G&A Institute team note: We continue to bring you news of private (corporate and business), public and social sector developments as organizations in the three societal sectors adjust to the emergency.
The new items will be posted at the top of the blog post and the items today will move down the queue.
We created the tag “Corporate Purpose – Virus Crisis” for this continuing series – and the hashtag “#WeRise2FightCOVID-19“ for our Twitter posts.  Do join the conversation and contribute your views and news.
Send us news about your organization – info@ga-institute.com so we can share.   Stay safe – be well — keep in touch!