GETUSPPE.ORG and PROJECT N95 Combine Forces to Create the Largest Demand-Side Database for PPE Nationwide

This document features the GetUsPPE.org's weekly briefing in an edited and condensed format for brief19.com.

By Amanda Peery-Wolf

With this partnership, Project N95 and GetUsPPE combine their extensive PPE demand databases into the Demand Data Hub, designed to be the single destination for healthcare workers to report their PPE needs, and the nation's authoritative source for PPE demand data. The Demand Data Hub now includes PPE requests from over 7,000 healthcare facilities. This collaboration will be a force multiplier in getting PPE to those who need it most—and quickly.  Our data on current supply of PPE in healthcare facilities by state and region was featured this week in Time.

Welcome to the wild west

A few weeks ago, it was Illinois Comptroller Susan Mendoza speeding down the highway to a McDonald's parking lot in Dwight, Illinois with a $3.4 million dollar check for a guy, who knew a guy, to buy masks. "You feel like you're doing some kind of sketchy drug deal, but you're really working hard to try to save people's lives," Mendoza said.  This week? The New England Journal of Medicine published an account by a chief physician executive who was vetting to-be-purchased medical masks when two FBI agents arrived. The deal went down, but barely.

Masks: The newest wearables

Masks are in fashion at the dawn of this decade—and they are now mandatory in many places. Face masks may be the new condoms, but they are also the new fashion accessory, and brands are steadily coming around, although so far few mass market brands have launched masks for consumers.  Some say the fashion industry's push to make non-N95 fabric masks for medical workers is misguided, though, and that fashion and apparel manufacturers should instead make fabric masks widely available to non-healthcare workers to protect the public, to help take the pressure off demand of medical-grade PPE for those on the frontlines.  Right now the masks-for-all market is dominated by boutique brands and Etsy—searches for masks on Etsy are up dramatically in recent weeks. Which American sartorial heavy hitter will be the first to enter the fray? We will see. The New York Times has some guidelines and "do's and don'ts" on mask wearing for the general public.

#PPEMATCHMADE

In the last week, GetMePPE Chicago distributed 4280 N95s on behalf of GetUsPPE to community hospitals and organizations on the South and West sides of Chicago.

GetUsPPE.org is a fast growing non-profit coalition of volunteers building a centralized platform to get PPE to healthcare providers on the frontlines.  Contact info@getusppe.org for more information on opportunities to volunteer and ways to contribute.

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MoveOn.org set up signs calling for more personal protective equipment on the West Lawn of the Capitol on Friday. Photo credit: Evelyn Hockstein for the Washington Post.