Bajansailor
Well-Known Member
I have a sub to Professional Boatbuilder, and I found this email (copied below) in my In box this morning.
The situation in the USA sounds pretty dire already, especially in New York - and I am sure that Britain is heading the same way.
I have seen reports of ICU nurses just having one mask for a 12 hour shift - yet they are required to change masks with every new patient seen. But there simply are not enough to go around.
--------------------------------------------
Bring Out Your Masks
Attention boat builders, repairers, owners, and tinkerers! If you have any spare,
or even not-so-spare, “N95” designated dust masks in your shop or inventory, find
them today and donate them to your closest medical facility. These disposable
facemasks, which protect against transmission of Covid-19, are currently in very
short supply at almost every hospital.
I passed my last 10-mask sleeve off to a favorite medical practitioner last weekend.
Her gratitude and fear were palpable. Her clinic had one “N95” her size in stock, and
the inevitable wave of coronavirus patients in our city had not even started yet.
The promised supplies of fresh masks or coronavirus test kits have yet to show up in
hospitals, so these nurses, doctors, and other essential staff are left with precious
few of the most necessary tools they need to confront the pandemic. Admirably and
frighteningly, they will be standing in the breach for the next weeks or months with
or without adequate protection equipment.
I know we have some of what they need on our shop shelves and supply rooms, and
while the sanding dust, stray microballoons, and laminate filaments are threats to
our good health, they pale in comparison to the disaster of widespread infection and
crippling of the medical profession precisely when we need all hands on deck.
Of course all the builders and contractors in the country won’t have reserves to see
medical staff through the entire pandemic wave, but an influx now could buy
valuable time and keep people protected until production and distribution of new
masks can be stepped up.
If there’s an industry that recognizes a Dunkirk moment when we see one, it is
boatbuilding.
The fact is, there’s no real and immediate relief from any level of government, so
please give what masks you can to the closest medical facility or your favorite
clinician. There are numerous national, state, and city-based efforts online to
coordinate mask donations—just do a search for your area. But at this point it’s
likely most effective to keep it as local as possible. Find out whether your closest
hospital has a designated drop-off area or, as I did, pass them on to someone you
know who is likely to be heading into the dangerous arena of the pandemic
response. Don’t shake their hands, don’t embrace them, but tell them thank you.
My best hopes for us all,
Aaron Porter
Editor
Professional BoatBuilder Magazine
The situation in the USA sounds pretty dire already, especially in New York - and I am sure that Britain is heading the same way.
I have seen reports of ICU nurses just having one mask for a 12 hour shift - yet they are required to change masks with every new patient seen. But there simply are not enough to go around.
--------------------------------------------
Bring Out Your Masks
Attention boat builders, repairers, owners, and tinkerers! If you have any spare,
or even not-so-spare, “N95” designated dust masks in your shop or inventory, find
them today and donate them to your closest medical facility. These disposable
facemasks, which protect against transmission of Covid-19, are currently in very
short supply at almost every hospital.
I passed my last 10-mask sleeve off to a favorite medical practitioner last weekend.
Her gratitude and fear were palpable. Her clinic had one “N95” her size in stock, and
the inevitable wave of coronavirus patients in our city had not even started yet.
The promised supplies of fresh masks or coronavirus test kits have yet to show up in
hospitals, so these nurses, doctors, and other essential staff are left with precious
few of the most necessary tools they need to confront the pandemic. Admirably and
frighteningly, they will be standing in the breach for the next weeks or months with
or without adequate protection equipment.
I know we have some of what they need on our shop shelves and supply rooms, and
while the sanding dust, stray microballoons, and laminate filaments are threats to
our good health, they pale in comparison to the disaster of widespread infection and
crippling of the medical profession precisely when we need all hands on deck.
Of course all the builders and contractors in the country won’t have reserves to see
medical staff through the entire pandemic wave, but an influx now could buy
valuable time and keep people protected until production and distribution of new
masks can be stepped up.
If there’s an industry that recognizes a Dunkirk moment when we see one, it is
boatbuilding.
The fact is, there’s no real and immediate relief from any level of government, so
please give what masks you can to the closest medical facility or your favorite
clinician. There are numerous national, state, and city-based efforts online to
coordinate mask donations—just do a search for your area. But at this point it’s
likely most effective to keep it as local as possible. Find out whether your closest
hospital has a designated drop-off area or, as I did, pass them on to someone you
know who is likely to be heading into the dangerous arena of the pandemic
response. Don’t shake their hands, don’t embrace them, but tell them thank you.
My best hopes for us all,
Aaron Porter
Editor
Professional BoatBuilder Magazine
