An East Butler company is shifting gears to manufacture a unique two-piece face shield designed to assist the unsung heroes of the fight against COVID-19

IDL, a marketing and retail design agency, has temporarily switched from manufacturing retail displays to produce shields for retail-industry service workers at the front lines of essential businesses who remain open during the pandemic.

The shields are easy to assemble quickly in the field and will give businesses the option of reusing the head strap and switching out face shields to reduce cost, IDL’s Bryan Boul said.

The company already has pumped out more than 100,000 shields and expects to have the capacity to manufacture 500,000 per week.

Lack of an adequate number of face shields has been a major complaint of health care workers and other essential workers who remain on the job.

But we still are trying to understand what led to the nationwide shortage of the relatively inexpensive N95 face masks, the protection against the coronavirus recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At the beginning of the H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009, more than 39 million N95 masks were sent to states from the national stockpile, according to a 2009 CDC response report. Later that year, an additional 59.5 million N95 masks were also released.

But the stockpile was never fully replenished.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, in Senate testimony in February, said the country would need at least 300 million masks in reserve. At that time, the federal stockpile of masks for health care professionals was 30 million, woefully short of the amount needed.

Industry professionals say they had long warned of shortages. 

During the past decade, a combination of differing priorities, underfunding and slow responsiveness all contributed to the shortfall of masks, leaving thousands of medical professionals now at greater risk of contracting COVID-19.

Who’s to blame?

President Donald Trump blames President Barack Obama’s administration for failing to replenish the national stockpile.

Predictably, Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and vice president under Obama, blames the current administration for being caught short-handed.

As the pandemic continues its deadly grip on our country, the last thing we need is the same, tired bipartisan bickering.

Let’s unite to fight this menace.

Thankfully, companies like Butler’s IDL are taking the lead and setting an example.

— JGG