Las Vegas COVID Mask Fundraiser (Wharton School)
Donation protected
*Update 4/10/20: 1,000 masks delivered to University Medical Center Emergency Department!
*Update 3/23/20: 500 masks delivered to UCLA and Kaiser Permanente Hollywood hospitals so far. More in transit!
Affiliated with the nationwide, Wharton-student run COVID-19 Fundraiser, which has raised over $25k in 3 days and has 27,000+ masks either delivered or en route. We have an amazing team of classmates working around the clock and behind the scenes establishing international distribution mechanisms and logistics for procurement.
=======================
As of 3/26/20 8:20am, there were 420 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Nevada. Unfortunately, the surge is ahead of us .
We are Las Vegas-based MBA students from the Wharton School of Business that are procuring masks and other protective equipment for local hospitals, doctors, and nurses so that they can continue to help victims of COVID-19 (coronavirus).
100% of your generous donations will be used to procure masks, supplies and equipment and ship them to healthcare providers and workers in Las Vegas.
Many of our friends work in the medical field and are on the frontlines fighting this pandemic every day. We appreciate your help in keeping them and their families and patients safe.
Thank you for your support, and please stay safe out there!
(If you have any unopened N95 masks, surgical masks, face shields, goggles, gowns or gloves that you'd like to donate, please reach out to one of the organizers directly to coordinate)
How we are doing this and how you can help
We have fellow students working tirelessly through researching options and tapping into personal networks across the country and globally to find suppliers that can provide and ship PPEs. We have already received numerous pricing quotes and information about capacity to provide N95 and related types of masks that we'll be shipping to hospitals both on the East and West coast, based on need. One of our primary constraints right now is funding. With your help in funding, we'll be able to ship potentially thousands of PPEs to help our medical workers within several weeks' time.
Why we need to do this
As of March 2020, there is a shortage across hospitals nationally for PPEs (personal protective equipment) and other types of medical equipment for doctors, nurses, and other hospital workers. Because COVID-19 is an airborne virus, this puts many of our hospital workers on the frontlines in immediate danger of being infected with many already infected and unable to do their jobs. Because these are our frontline workers, their inability to work effectively and efficiently only makes the spread of the virus more likely, something other countries such as Singapore have already learned first hand. In fact, one of the key lessons learned was that "all health-care workers are expected to wear regular surgical masks for all patient interactions." This is NOT happening in the US today. The PPE shortage has gotten so bad that the CDC has recommended the use of bandannas and scarves as make-shift PPEs, which are NOT as effective.
Our friends working on the frontlines:
Below are pictures of our friends who are medical professionals working on the frontlines.
Dr. Bailey Zhao is an attending ER physician at Valley Health in Las Vegas, where the mask shortage is so critical that he and his coworkers are issued one mask per 9-12 hour shift, when standard procedure is one mask per patient. The masks aren't designed to be taken on and off over a period that long, so they are leaving the mask on for their whole shift and not eating or drinking for 12 hours.
Sarah is an RN in a Pediatric ICU unit in a Las Vegas hospital. She is very concerned about how fast her hospital is going through limited supplies of PPE - "I don't think any hospital in the nation is prepared."
Dr. Alex Ding is a Medical Director and Chief of Radiology at Sutter Health working with multiple hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area and has had to personally gather masks from friends and family to take to hospitals. Because things are so bad, he is taking any type of mask regardless of whether it is N95 due to the shortage.
Pete Hanna is a Chair of Surgery at Grace Medical Center in Baltimore. Because of the shortage of PPEs, Pete has had to resort to other make-shift ways of keeping from being infected. These are NOT as effective measures and put him in danger of being infected.
Francesca is a critical care nurse in Los Angeles and recently took a picture with KN95 masks ordered for Los Angeles hospitals less than 24 hours after the start of the fundraiser. N95 masks are currently out of stock while COVID-19 patients are increasing on a daily basis
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/10/face-mask-shortage-prompts-cdc-loosen-coronavirus-guidance/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/health/coronavirus-masks-shortage.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/covid-19-hits-doctors-nurses-emts-threatening-health-system/2020/03/17/f21147e8-67aa-11ea-b313-df458622c2cc_story.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/ppe-strategy/face-masks.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/keeping-the-coronavirus-from-infecting-health-care-workers
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1) Isn’t supply the main issue right now? How are you able to procure supplies?
There are a number of issues beyond supply.
At the federal level, limited supply is being allocated from FEMA. However, allocations are not happening in enough time or quantities to meet the exponentially growing demand. FEMA is under-resourced in both staffing and supply. The federal government is instructing local and state governments to procure supplies themselves to take the burden off the federal government, and to ask for donations of supply.
Through our personal networks, we are able to quickly source from both domestic and global suppliers who would love to be able to supply to hospitals directly, but are not getting responses from hospital procurement departments.
2) Aren’t you making it harder for hospitals and government entities to source and creating more price competition? Why don’t you donate the money directly to the hospitals instead?
tldr; there is a lot more bureaucracy involved in hospital procurement processes, which is necessary under normal circumstances.
Hospital procurement process incurs quality-checking time and liability discussion (which is helpful normally but not when doctors are making masks by themselves). Given the circumstances, the best and most efficient way is to treat our efforts as gap-bridging attempts to minimize the time-to-hands-of-doctors. Afterwards we can connect our suppliers with procurers directly. Hopefully by then manufacturing efforts are also cranked up.
3) How can you be sure that the supplies you procure meet safety standards?
We are sourcing N95 and related masks such as KN95, which are at any rate superior to the bandanas, scarves, and other make-shift gear our healthcare workers currently are using.
4) If I have extra supplies, how can I donate them?
Please contact one of our team members if you would like to arrange a donation. Our team is based in Las Vegas but we also have teammates at cities across the nation.
If you would like to coordinate drop off of supplies in your own community, here is a list of hospitals nationwide accepting donations:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-how-to-donate-personal-protective-equipment-ppe-health-care-workers/
#whartoncovidfund #wharton
*Update 3/23/20: 500 masks delivered to UCLA and Kaiser Permanente Hollywood hospitals so far. More in transit!
Affiliated with the nationwide, Wharton-student run COVID-19 Fundraiser, which has raised over $25k in 3 days and has 27,000+ masks either delivered or en route. We have an amazing team of classmates working around the clock and behind the scenes establishing international distribution mechanisms and logistics for procurement.
=======================
As of 3/26/20 8:20am, there were 420 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Nevada. Unfortunately, the surge is ahead of us .
We are Las Vegas-based MBA students from the Wharton School of Business that are procuring masks and other protective equipment for local hospitals, doctors, and nurses so that they can continue to help victims of COVID-19 (coronavirus).
100% of your generous donations will be used to procure masks, supplies and equipment and ship them to healthcare providers and workers in Las Vegas.
Many of our friends work in the medical field and are on the frontlines fighting this pandemic every day. We appreciate your help in keeping them and their families and patients safe.
Thank you for your support, and please stay safe out there!
(If you have any unopened N95 masks, surgical masks, face shields, goggles, gowns or gloves that you'd like to donate, please reach out to one of the organizers directly to coordinate)
How we are doing this and how you can help
We have fellow students working tirelessly through researching options and tapping into personal networks across the country and globally to find suppliers that can provide and ship PPEs. We have already received numerous pricing quotes and information about capacity to provide N95 and related types of masks that we'll be shipping to hospitals both on the East and West coast, based on need. One of our primary constraints right now is funding. With your help in funding, we'll be able to ship potentially thousands of PPEs to help our medical workers within several weeks' time.
Why we need to do this
As of March 2020, there is a shortage across hospitals nationally for PPEs (personal protective equipment) and other types of medical equipment for doctors, nurses, and other hospital workers. Because COVID-19 is an airborne virus, this puts many of our hospital workers on the frontlines in immediate danger of being infected with many already infected and unable to do their jobs. Because these are our frontline workers, their inability to work effectively and efficiently only makes the spread of the virus more likely, something other countries such as Singapore have already learned first hand. In fact, one of the key lessons learned was that "all health-care workers are expected to wear regular surgical masks for all patient interactions." This is NOT happening in the US today. The PPE shortage has gotten so bad that the CDC has recommended the use of bandannas and scarves as make-shift PPEs, which are NOT as effective.
Our friends working on the frontlines:
Below are pictures of our friends who are medical professionals working on the frontlines.
Dr. Bailey Zhao is an attending ER physician at Valley Health in Las Vegas, where the mask shortage is so critical that he and his coworkers are issued one mask per 9-12 hour shift, when standard procedure is one mask per patient. The masks aren't designed to be taken on and off over a period that long, so they are leaving the mask on for their whole shift and not eating or drinking for 12 hours.
Sarah is an RN in a Pediatric ICU unit in a Las Vegas hospital. She is very concerned about how fast her hospital is going through limited supplies of PPE - "I don't think any hospital in the nation is prepared."
Dr. Alex Ding is a Medical Director and Chief of Radiology at Sutter Health working with multiple hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area and has had to personally gather masks from friends and family to take to hospitals. Because things are so bad, he is taking any type of mask regardless of whether it is N95 due to the shortage.
Pete Hanna is a Chair of Surgery at Grace Medical Center in Baltimore. Because of the shortage of PPEs, Pete has had to resort to other make-shift ways of keeping from being infected. These are NOT as effective measures and put him in danger of being infected.
Francesca is a critical care nurse in Los Angeles and recently took a picture with KN95 masks ordered for Los Angeles hospitals less than 24 hours after the start of the fundraiser. N95 masks are currently out of stock while COVID-19 patients are increasing on a daily basis
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/10/face-mask-shortage-prompts-cdc-loosen-coronavirus-guidance/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/health/coronavirus-masks-shortage.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/covid-19-hits-doctors-nurses-emts-threatening-health-system/2020/03/17/f21147e8-67aa-11ea-b313-df458622c2cc_story.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/ppe-strategy/face-masks.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/keeping-the-coronavirus-from-infecting-health-care-workers
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1) Isn’t supply the main issue right now? How are you able to procure supplies?
There are a number of issues beyond supply.
At the federal level, limited supply is being allocated from FEMA. However, allocations are not happening in enough time or quantities to meet the exponentially growing demand. FEMA is under-resourced in both staffing and supply. The federal government is instructing local and state governments to procure supplies themselves to take the burden off the federal government, and to ask for donations of supply.
Through our personal networks, we are able to quickly source from both domestic and global suppliers who would love to be able to supply to hospitals directly, but are not getting responses from hospital procurement departments.
2) Aren’t you making it harder for hospitals and government entities to source and creating more price competition? Why don’t you donate the money directly to the hospitals instead?
tldr; there is a lot more bureaucracy involved in hospital procurement processes, which is necessary under normal circumstances.
Hospital procurement process incurs quality-checking time and liability discussion (which is helpful normally but not when doctors are making masks by themselves). Given the circumstances, the best and most efficient way is to treat our efforts as gap-bridging attempts to minimize the time-to-hands-of-doctors. Afterwards we can connect our suppliers with procurers directly. Hopefully by then manufacturing efforts are also cranked up.
3) How can you be sure that the supplies you procure meet safety standards?
We are sourcing N95 and related masks such as KN95, which are at any rate superior to the bandanas, scarves, and other make-shift gear our healthcare workers currently are using.
4) If I have extra supplies, how can I donate them?
Please contact one of our team members if you would like to arrange a donation. Our team is based in Las Vegas but we also have teammates at cities across the nation.
If you would like to coordinate drop off of supplies in your own community, here is a list of hospitals nationwide accepting donations:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-how-to-donate-personal-protective-equipment-ppe-health-care-workers/
#whartoncovidfund #wharton
Co-organizers (4)
James Tang
Organizer
Las Vegas, NV
Danyelle Montoya
Co-organizer
Lily Kim
Co-organizer
Shobhit Singhal
Co-organizer