Illustration: Getty/Guardian Design
Samanth Subramanian, The Guardian: How the face mask became the world's most coveted commodity
The global scramble for this vital item has exposed the harsh realities of international politics and the limits of the free market.
If Ovidiu Olea is astonished by the fact that he’s gone from being a finance guy to a mask mogul in four months, he shows no sign of it. The transition started innocuously. Late in January, when the coronavirus spread beyond Wuhan, Olea decided he would buy masks for his staff. He lives in Hong Kong, where he runs a payment technology firm. His staff isn’t large – just 20 employees – but finding even a few hundred masks proved hard. Part of the problem was that last year, after protesters in Hong Kong used masks to hide their identity, the Chinese government restricted supplies from the mainland. Before the pandemic, half the world’s masks were manufactured in China; now, with production there shifting into overdrive, that figure may be as high as 85%. If China isn’t sending you masks, you likely aren’t getting any at all. We have no masks, local pharmacies told Olea, but if you find some, we’ll buy them from you.
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WNU Editor: I read somewhere that 53 billion face masks will be needed worldwide in the coming year if the Covid-19 pandemic does not dissipate. My gut tells me that this is a low-ball number.
