Thursday Things: Holding It Together Edition
2 April 2020. Vol 2 No 14. By Dan McGirt. #34
Welcome to Thursday Things. This week’s edition is brought to you by Wash Your Hands!
Avengers Assemble! Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
America, historically, tends to get caught flat-footed by major crises. We usually take a few punches before we collectively wake up to the problem and take it seriously. We might even hit the mat briefly. But then we get up.
When that happens — look out! When we as a nation decide to deal with something, we unleash tremendous energy, innovation, organizational capacity, and a relentless sense of purpose. It’s like when the Transformers combine into an even bigger Transformer to crush the bad guys. At that point, we make some wisecrack and proceed to punch that problem repeatedly in the face until it stops moving. Then we pat ourselves on the back and return to whatever we were doing before. I imagine that’s about how this coronavirus thing is going to go when all is said and done.
Here is a good example of what I mean. Companies that normally make cars, booze, men’s suits, pillows, underwear, and other goods have retooled their manufacturing to make needed medical goods. They’ve transformed themselves into something else on short notice — and combined with other companies to to get the job done. Here is a round up of some of them: Some 50 major American firms have joined the national war on the coronavirus, many volunteering to shift their focus and even assembly lines to deliver needed supplies to doctors, hospitals, first responders and others on the front lines of the coronavirus battle. Including:
Ford, 3M, GE Healthcare, Toyota, GM, Ventec Life Systems, Honeywell, are working to produce more ventilators, face shields, and other needed gear.
Tesla has purchased and donated more than 1,000 much-needed ventilators.
MyPillow, Hanes, Ralph Lauren, Jockey International, Brooks Brothers, Bauer, Under Armour are making face masks or isolation gowns or donating scrubs to hospitals
FedEx Express is helping quickly transport coronavirus test specimans from remote testing centers to labs.
Bayer, Novartis, and Teva have donated millions of doses of the hydroxychloroquine
Procter & Gamble is increasing production of hand sanitizer. Anheuser-Busch is working to produce sanitizer too. And Bacardi. And Pernod Ricard. Plus lots of smaller distilleries who have converted their production to make hand sanitizer.
And much more. Click through for the full list. And that's not even getting to all the local businesses helping by donating meals to feed busy hospital staff. Together, we will get it done. Have no doubt of that!
Medtronic Gives Away Ventilator Design Specs In Coronavirus Fight, Ahead Of Tesla Alliance: “Medtronic is sharing design specifications for a basic ventilator model with any company that wants to help produce them for hospitals racing to treat coronavirus patients as the medical device maker discusses a manufacturing partnership with Elon Musk’s Tesla.” I wanted to pull this one out, because Medtronic is basically handing out their trade secrets to help solve the problem.
Servpro cleaning stations and vehicles for first responders at no charge: “Some cleaning companies are answering the call to fight COVID-19, and one is sanitizing fire and police departments free of charge.” And this is an example of companies supporting the overall effort with some of the less glamorous tasks that still need to be done.
I could go on about all the workers in the grocery stores, the truckers moving food and other goods in epic amounts, and our farmers and ranchers who are still feeding everyone (even if we are probably overeating during our enforced inactivity). Maybe I’ll focus on those groups next week. There are a lot of awesome people doing amazing work to help us hold it together.
In fact, please send me any articles or examples you find that you think should be noted of worker, volunteers, or so-called ordinary people just getting it done as we fight the pandemic together. And that goes for all Happy Subscribers around the world! I may not be as plugged in to what is happening in your country, but please share any stories that inspire you. Most of you can reach me on Facebook or email your suggestions in a reply to this newsletter or in the comments on the web version.
For those of us who are mainly saving the world by staying home, you may need more entertainment options. Here are a few:
Hasbro Releases Full Episodes Of The Original 80's G.I.Joe Animated Series On YouTube
Library of Congress Expands Its Collection of Open Access eBooks
68 Cultural, Historical and Scientific Collections You Can Explore Online
You can now download over 300,000 books from the NYPL for free
You can also download my comical fantasy adventure novel Hero Wanted for free.
And if romance is your preferred genre, try My Only Desire (a Western romance) or Dark Prelude (Gothic romance) by Andrea Parnell, also free downloads.
Again — please send in your own suggestions of free or cheap books, movies, cources, and other resources that your fellow ThursdayThingers might enjoy!
Thank you for reading Thursday Things! See you next Thursday.