Some of you might have seen my rare Saturday post last weekend, wherein I solicited a very naive idea for getting N95 masks into the hands of our cherished public health people.
Turns out there are no stupid ideas.
Just stupid presidents.
Because following that post I got a phone call from Lynn Tucker, a logistics expert and veteran of the USAF.
Lynn read my piece and thought I could help, albeit in a different manner. One that actually got something accomplished. I told her I was interested and that I was all ears.
That was a mistake, because for the next hour and a half, I was treated to an eye opening primer on the supply chain mechanics of the US government. Thanks to the Mute button on my iPhone, I was able to squeeze in two bathroom breaks during the Lynn's dissertation on Federal red tape and mismanagement.
As you might suspect, the picture was not pretty.
In fact, the picture was not altogether clear. But as I explained to Lynn, I'm not the brightest bulb in the package. She didn't bother to disagree but instead moved on to the next point in her plan.
Which I now interpret to mean, "Yes, Rich, we get that you were not cut out for anything more than throwing some occasionally funny words on a piece of paper, but the people who read your blog are arguably the best in the business and have vital connections to the C-Suite and Fortune 100 people who can make things happen."
And that's where you come in.
You see, for this large scale, rapid fire manufacture of N95 masks to work, it's going to take coordination. More importantly it's going to require connecting all the dots, from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon.
Material suppliers.
Inventory control.
Shipping.
Production.
Distribution.
The secret sauce is putting the right people together with the other right people. And if you were to go through the little Rolodex in your mind ("OK, Boomer") or the hard drive on your computer, chances are you know someone, or someone who knows someone else, who can help -- in other words, one of those critical dots.
Lynn and her team are working with the folks at Govshop.com. It's a site designed to facilitate the connecting of the dots, so that more masks can get made, more masks can get shipped and more masks can be used to protect the people who are protecting us.
At least that's my very rudimentary understanding. But before I lay out the contact information and your next steps, let me interject a small anecdote to illustrate the seriousness of our current situation.
On Sunday night, my wife was doubled over in pain. Intense, unbearable intestinal pain. We rushed over to the emergency room at Brotman Medical Center.
And it felt like we had entered a dystopian Spielberg movie.
My wife was admitted into the ER, but I had to wait in the parking lot, secured by two uniformed guards. The nurses and techs were all wearing masks. The attending doctors had masks as well. Those heavy duty plastic flip down face guards that made them look like welders.
There was an uncomfortable tension in the air. As well as who knows what contagions. Four hours later, we left with some opioids and medicine for her nearly evacuated kidney stones. All in all, very surreal.
In short, this is an unprecedented time.
And it calls for unprecedented action, by all of us.
Please visit https://govshop.publicspendforum.net This is one of several sites dedicated to bringing suppliers together with government buyers.
Learn more about what they're doing. And think about what you can do to help.
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