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Apple

Apple Donates Millions of Masks to Healthcare Pros in America and Europe (engadget.com) 74

Posted by EditorDavid from the here's-to-the-healthcare-providers dept.
An anonymous reader quotes Engadget: Hospitals in numerous countries are struggling to provide basic supplies to healthcare workers, and tech companies are pitching in to address the shortfall. Tim Cook has revealed that Apple is donating "millions" of masks to healthcare professionals in Europe and the U.S.
Their article notes that Alibaba has also been donating masks, test kits, protective suits and face shields, while Elon Musk's companies are exploring the production of ventilators.

"It's part of a positive trend and suggests that tech companies may play a significant role in fighting the pandemic whether or not they have directly relevant expertise."
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Apple Donates Millions of Masks to Healthcare Pros in America and Europe More

Apple Donates Millions of Masks to Healthcare Pros in America and Europe

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  • I hope they didnâ(TM)t buy millions of them to protect their own employees and suddenly realize there were no employees in their office to protect.

    • Re:Where/when did they get these masks? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Mr. Dollar Ton ( 5495648 ) on Saturday March 21, 2020 @11:32PM (#59858426)

      They probably buy them for the same reason as our laboratories - for work. There are things that you do in a lab-like environment that require respirators. They are a large company that does a lot of materials research, prototyping and testing and they need to keep their lungs from whatever dust and debris are produced in the process.

      Until the recent shortages, even the N95 respirators were often treated as disposable and used it only once. I personally tend to reuse them until they clog, but I'm one of the few who did that.

      Since the masks are a lot cheaper in bulk, do not expire very quickly, and you burn through them fast if you change them after every use, it makes sense to buy more at once; if you're a large organization "millions" is not hard to imagine.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rei ( 128717 )

        I own one N95 respirator and reuse it. They're not really designed for sterilization, though. The "comfort fit" nosepiece became brittle and broke off after a couple times being steam-sterilized (although it still forms a tight seal around the nose... just fits a bit more awkwardly). Also, mine - being an industrial respirator, not a medical one, has a valve for exhalation. Good for protecting me from getting infected, and more comfortable to work in; not so good for protecting others if I were to get in

        • That depends on the model. Our masks have metallic nose pieces and work fine after oven sterilization.

          Sterilization is doable, but most of the time it is simply not necessary.

          I see need to sterilize masks only if the person who is wearing it is in close proximity to people who are sick with the virus. The mask would be constantly bombarded with it and may become a source of contagion.

          In all other circumstances this would be a very unlikely outcome - the droplets that carry the virus will be trapped insid

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

          I own one N95 respirator and reuse it. They're not really designed for sterilization, though. The "comfort fit" nosepiece became brittle and broke off after a couple times being steam-sterilized (although it still forms a tight seal around the nose... just fits a bit more awkwardly). Also, mine - being an industrial respirator, not a medical one, has a valve for exhalation.

          I'm sorry, didn't you just finish lecturing us that the virus could not survive drying out [slashdot.org]? Why are you steam sterilizing your mask, Ca

      • For a prototyping and manufacturing company they are not large, less than 20,000 engineers, only a fraction of who would need masks. Millions is very tough to understand.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gtall ( 79522 )

          Yah, what company wouldn't think to buy in bulk to save money?

        • For a prototyping and manufacturing company they are not large, less than 20,000 engineers, only a fraction of who would need masks. Millions is very tough to understand.

          You forget all the workers in the testing labs, and in some QA operations. A lot more of them than hardware R&D Engineers.

          • No I didn't. Regardless the other story for facebook has a much more sane explanation, they bought them for staff during the wildfires.
        • At one mask/week, that's a million masks a year. At one mask/work session (with a piss-break morning and afternoon and a lunch break), and one spare/day, a million would last a couple of weeks.

          But that is spread across all work sites. In one location, it's a bit harder, but not particularly unreasonable. Buying a quarter-year supply each quarter could easily leave a number of larger sites with well over a million in the store room.

      • They probably buy them for the same reason as our laboratories - for work.

        Or they're donating them in the sense of "placed an order for X million masks to be drop-shipped to places that need them." Many companies do good-will things like donate food to food-banks. Really it's the equivalent of cutting a check.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          Or they're donating them in the sense of "placed an order for X million masks to be drop-shipped to places that need them." Many companies do good-will things like donate food to food-banks. Really it's the equivalent of cutting a check.

          Quite likely. And very likely that since Apple is a huge company compared to the people that need them (hospitals etc), Apple probably deals direct with 3M. Apple can very well say "3M, ship X million masks to these healthcare providers and send me the bill".

          This way, 3M wil

      • Assuming this is direct Apple employees, and 30% are hardware engineers, and all of those people need masks for their jobs... 1e6/(.3*7e4)= 47.6 masks per hw engr. That seems quite excessive, especially considering that it's prolly more like 3% of total headcount would need N95 PPE, and even that is crazy generous

        • Assuming this is direct Apple employees, and 30% are hardware engineers, and all of those people need masks for their jobs...

          1e6/(.3*7e4)= 47.6 masks per hw engr.

          That seems quite excessive, especially considering that it's prolly more like 3% of total headcount would need N95 PPE, and even that is crazy generous

          WTF is wrong with you people?!?

          You simply cannot just say "Good Job, Apple!", or even just say nothing.

          No, with you fucking idiots, it always has to be some nefarious scheme if there is any connection with "Apple" whatsoever.

          You're just morons.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          Assuming this is direct Apple employees, and 30% are hardware engineers, and all of those people need masks for their jobs... 1e6/(.3*7e4)= 47.6 masks per hw engr. That seems quite excessive, especially considering that it's prolly more like 3% of total headcount would need N95 PPE, and even that is crazy generous

          If you use 1 per day, that's 200 each for those who need it. Apple probably buys in bulk and ensures that they have a ready supply.

          And yes, you can bet most of those people will probably go through

          • In my experience, running small engineering labs and having worked in the machining industry for 15 years, most people will re-use and overuse masks because they are incredibly lazy or don't know better. I'm looking at you, jackass who puts the mask down on the fab table, lets it fill up with dust, then tries to rewear it. If there was an endless supply at the PPE stores, maybe that's not the case.

    • Theyâ(TM)re industrial masks for protecting people against chemicals and dusts in manufacturing processes. At very least Iâ(TM)d expect they go through a shit ton prototyping new devices.

    • Your question deserves a positive moderation, though I'm not sure what it should be. I think you needed to go farther to reach insight... For example, do you know if any of Apple's AI projects may have given them the tip to buy the masks?

      My main problem with the charity approach is different. Private charity is simply not an adequate solution for public problems. In the best case, the private charity is going to provide more resources than needed, but that's only likely for relatively minor problems that ge

      • You don't win a war relying on just charity. We are at.war with this virus. The feds need to act decisively, like last tuesday. Avtually invoke DPA, commandeer the supply chain of PPE goods, distribute equitably throughout the nation, start backfilling production to get us ready for the onslaught of patients in respiratory failure.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by shanen ( 462549 )

          Well, I basically agree, though I'd be strongly tilted toward the prevention side because we don't have even an ounce of cure for Covid-19. I think the emergency focus should have been on keeping the food moving. Basically that seems to be what the Chinese did. Not a "voluntary social distancing" or polite quarantine approach, but rather Xi just came out and arrested 60 million people and focused on keeping them fed and alive until ALL of the active cases of Covid-19 could be found. Yeah, they set up specia

    • so that's where that million masks the belgian government ordered disappeared to ?
      ah, what did microsoft buy for my grandma ?
  • SAVE THE CONSUMERS

    • That's not far from the mark though. Dead people don't pay taxes, contribute to the economy, keep the flow of goods and services moving.

      • They do vote, however.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by guruevi ( 827432 )

          That's only relevant to Democrats though, right now the Republicans are in power.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gtall ( 79522 )

          The incidence of voter fraud in the U.S. is minuscule, even the Trumped up commission Doofus entrusted to ferret out vote fraud headed by that fraud from Kansas turned up squat. Of course, maybe he was too incompetent to manufacture fake instances.

      • keep the flow of goods and services moving.

        You haven't had to pay funeral costs have you?

        Yet.

  • Latest Apple Promotion (Score:4, Funny)

    by bobstreo ( 1320787 ) on Saturday March 21, 2020 @11:11PM (#59858388)

    20 free N-95 masks with every purchase over $1K

  • WTF (Score:3)

    by Etcetera ( 14711 ) on Sunday March 22, 2020 @12:30AM (#59858506) Homepage

    Apparently Apple mistook N95 masks for a IP addresses.

    Can you have Class A N95 address space?

  • I wonder how many masks could be purchased for the money Apple tax dodges every year...

  • Hope they're not 'donating' to people who charge for their services.
  • Apple is always my favorite company. They always take the right and good decision. Somedays ago they closed all of the shops outside of China. I really appreatiate it. And I think they are the first company who come to help physically. However, This is really a hard time for all of us so we should be careful and keep update news and data about coronavirus [slashdot.org]

  • I would donate positive pressure suits to the doctors worldwide.
    Those are being exposed much more to the thing than anyone else, and if they collapse, we lose the "game".

  • ... instead of robbing most countries in the world of the much needed tax revenue. Another act of appalling cynicism.

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