Coronavirus: A shortage of masks
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2020
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The business impact of the coronavirus outbreak. Ed Butler speaks to the BBC's Robin Brant in Shanghai about the partial return of Chinese workers in the city. Bloomberg economist Maeva Cousin discusses the economic impact on China and global supply chains. Mike Bowen, vice president of Prestige Amaritech in Texas, one of the few manufacturers of medical masks outside of China, explains why a shortage of masks globally is not good news for his business. Laurie Garrett, Pulitzer prize-winning author of a book The Coming Plague, explains why she's concerned countries like the US are underprepared for outbreaks like the coronavirus.
(Photo: A women wears a mask while walking in the street on January 22, 2020 in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello there. Ed Butler with you on Business Daily here from the BBC World Service, where today, with the spread of the coronavirus, we're asking, should we be worrying about the supply of surgical masks? |
| 0:13.4 | B factories in China make half of the US mask supply. It's already stretched to its breaking point. So if the government of China decides to stop shipping |
| 0:21.6 | masks to major U.S. distributors, America won't be able to do normal surgeries because |
| 0:26.3 | there won't be any masks. The economics of the outbreak is our focus today and whether |
| 0:31.1 | countries outside of China are truly ready for what's coming. If you look at the scale of this |
| 0:37.2 | response, shutting entire cities down, |
| 0:39.9 | shutting down rail systems, shutting down airports, |
| 0:43.3 | most governments are really fooling themselves if they think they are, quote, ready. |
| 0:48.2 | That's all to come in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:52.6 | Well, it has been an extended New York break in China as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, |
| 0:58.9 | but some people have been heading back to their offices and other workplaces this week. |
| 1:04.2 | These individuals in Shanghai said they believed current health measures in place will be effective |
| 1:09.2 | to protect them. |
| 1:17.2 | It's obvious that there are fewer people on the train compared to normal days, and everyone's wearing a mask. I feel a sense of relief with these basic protection measures. |
| 1:24.9 | Compared to the last few days, there are a lot of people today, and there's obviously more traffic. |
| 1:29.9 | But compared to what it was like before the virus spread, before the lunar new year, it's still fewer people. |
| 1:39.1 | It's still the first day back to work, so there are far fewer people about. |
| 1:43.7 | The office buildings are being disinfected, and they're taking your temperature before you go in. |
| 1:48.5 | As for the work, well, we're going to work from home for the next few days, so I'm actually quite relieved. |
| 1:55.2 | Well, as that last woman indicated, it isn't exactly business as usual in China, not yet anyway. |
| 2:01.6 | Firms like Alibaba, Mei Chuan and China's largest single employer, Foxcon, are still reporting |
| 2:07.1 | closed factories this week, carmakers, BMW, Nissan and Volkswagen have all shut their factories |
... |
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