California, MD – COVID-19 continues to sweep across the nation, and hospitals are being hit hard. Due to the public clearing everything off the shelves, doctors and nurses are grasping for equipment anyway they can. Hospitals are running dangerously low on supplies and equipment, as they do not have enough masks to protect themselves and do not have enough respirators for patients.
Normally, the cost of medical masks were approximately .58 cents for one face mask.1 The global panic caused by the pandemic resulted in masks quickly disappearing from the shelves. The high demand resulted with the price of face masks skyrocketing and are now at a minimum of $7 per single mask, according to Bloomberg.com.2 Hospitals already pay a high amount to obtain face masks for their daily work routine. During this period, it is shown how that price could only grow drastically. 3.5 billion are predicted to be used nationwide during this pandemic. 3.5 billion masks, at $7 per mask, would be 24.5 billion dollars in N95 mask sales. Hospitals are faced with large amounts of debt just from the cost of face masks alone, imagine how much money they will have to compensate just during this month alone. Luckily, one organization has created a way to help to exceedingly decrease the expense.
Southern Maryland Loves You (SoMDLovesYou), a non-profit organization, was quickly formed in March. Incubated out of TechPort, a technological incubator founded in Southern Maryland, this organization works to support those combating on the front lines during COVID-19 by providing products. SoMDLovesYou Heat Sanitization Box, also known as the ‘Hot Box’, can disinfect thousands of masks within an hour. This box could provide emergency service personnel the ability to reuse their gear, 20 times at minimum, saving them money and materials. If masks could be reused 20 times, we would only need 175 million masks, which would be 1.225 billion dollars, saving 23.275 billion dollars. It could aid hospitals the opportunity to salvage their medical equipment, while providing substantial savings.
Not only would the ‘Hot Box’ greatly lower costs, it would also have a positive environmental result. Reusing this box at a minimum of 20 times would result in 3.325 billion masks from ending up in waste fields during this pandemic by providing people the chance to reuse their face masks multiple times. This pandemic has provided an opportunity to show how local community efforts can have positive national impacts in numerous ways.
Project Credit: SOMD Loves You, Burch Oil Mart Propane, Triton Defense, TechPort, Dominic Fragman, Paul Murphy, Tabitha Dunn, Alec Dobbins, Matt Hayes, Alex Walker, Jelly Mehrkam, Jonathan Monroe & Andrew Gerbosi