Nell post from 2026-10-21

In March 2020, the World Health Organization estimated that the COVID-19 response needed 89 million medical masks and 76 million examination gloves each month, and called for a 40 per cent increase in manufacturing. It also described export restrictions, hoarding, price surges and deliveries taking months.

Those details turn PPE from an object into a system. Filtration material, fit and standards matter, but so do factory throughput, allocation, transport, stock visibility and whether a hospital can afford the price that morning. A brilliant specification sitting in the wrong warehouse protects nobody.

We often call something “medical technology” while looking at the designed object. The emergency exposed a less photogenic technology: procurement rules, production lines and distribution records. It is easy to overlook until it fails.

Reliability should perhaps be measured end to end: not merely can this device work, but can it reach the person whose next shift depends on it?