Michael Barbella, Managing Editor11.10.21
Mike Bowen should have known better.
A lot better, actually.
COVID-19 is not the first global pandemic to upend his business and others like it. During the deadly H1N1 outbreak in 2009-10, Bowen’s company increased production of hard-to-find medical masks, churning out product on a 24/7 basis. “America’s hospitals needed us,” Bowen told Congress last year, “and we rose to the occasion.”
More like soared: The firm built new machines, bought an abandoned factory, and tripled its staff to keep U.S. hospitals awash in N95 respirators and disposable surgical masks. Knowing the federal government was concerned about its reliance on foreign-made masks (roughly 90 percent of the U.S. supply was imported then), Bowen assumed America’s leaders would reshore some N95 production once the pandemic ended.
He assumed incorrectly.
“It’s like people want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to have th
A lot better, actually.
COVID-19 is not the first global pandemic to upend his business and others like it. During the deadly H1N1 outbreak in 2009-10, Bowen’s company increased production of hard-to-find medical masks, churning out product on a 24/7 basis. “America’s hospitals needed us,” Bowen told Congress last year, “and we rose to the occasion.”
More like soared: The firm built new machines, bought an abandoned factory, and tripled its staff to keep U.S. hospitals awash in N95 respirators and disposable surgical masks. Knowing the federal government was concerned about its reliance on foreign-made masks (roughly 90 percent of the U.S. supply was imported then), Bowen assumed America’s leaders would reshore some N95 production once the pandemic ended.
He assumed incorrectly.
“It’s like people want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to have th
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