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A joint effort to increase production of medical masks in Europe

02 Apr 2020 - 10:03
Source: Street art - graffiti with facial mask on the wall during the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Warsaw, Poland by Adam Nieścioruk / Unsplash
Taking back responsibility

Celebrities, athletes, and businesspersons all over the world are donating money to fight the coronavirus pandemic. However, even all the money in the world cannot solve the shortage of face masks for medical personnel. The reason for this shortcoming of the power of money is that global production of face masks is hampered by a global shortage of the crucial material “melt-blown filter media”. China scaled up its production of this material as much as it could, but it is still nowhere near enough to produce face masks for China and the rest of the world. In fact, it is not even enough for China itself. The supply of face masks from China is therefore expected to dry up soon and Europe needs to act quickly to scale up its own production of melt-blown filter media in order to become self-sufficient in the production of masks.

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