This article is a perfect example of government red tape at its best!
Interesting read from The Washington Post that reveals the problems of government bureaucracy during the beginning of the pandemic. Many steps have been taken to fix this “doing business as usual” government mentality but further rethinking/revising of protocol needs to be addressed. Consideration for domestic manufacturing during a national crisis should be at the forefront for security and quality control.
An excerpt from Mike Bowen, vice president of Prestige Ameritech to the federal government, “I’m just letting you know that I can help you preserve our infrastructure if things ever get really bad. I’m a patriot first, businessman second.”
In the early days of the pandemic, the U.S. government turned down an offer to manufacture millions of N95 masks in America.
Read full article By Aaron C. Davis here:
Prestige Ameritech’s headquarters and 220,000 square foot manufacturing facility are located near Fort Worth, TX. Prestige is a designer and manufacturer of disposable medical devices. The company is the United States’ largest domestic surgical mask manufacturer.
Prestige Ameritech sells ProGear® branded surgical masks, N95 respirators, and other products. It also manufactures medical products for other medical companies.
Unfortunately they do not sell to the public. If you visit the website you will see this pop up warning:
“We DO NOT sell ProGear N95 respirators through brokers, Facebook, or online retailers like Amazon or eBay, nor do we sell directly to individuals. All of our current production capacity is dedicated solely to our hospital and healthcare customers.”
Just for awareness sake, when you are at a hospital/healthcare facility and have a mask given you to wear, it would be interesting to see if it has the Prestige name on it. If not then it probably was not made in USA.
To learn about America’s Largest Domestic Surgical Mask Maker visit: https://www.prestigeameritech.com/
