PPE for the People

In India, citizen-led small-scale digital efforts are helping to connect Covid-19 patients with the resources, supplies, and medical equipment they need to survive. The citizen groups are largely using online platforms to crowdsource what they need, with some matching buyers and sellers and others "debunking inaccurate leads."

A tension fabric structures manufacturing company in Maine has repurposed their facility and transformed their local workforce to create grade-one medical masks for the local hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic. Because the company uses only U.S.-made materials, they have been able to avoid supply chain interruptions and now plans to continue making masks as part of their standard business model even after the pandemic passes.

Communities and medical professionals are working together to create their own mutual aid supply chain as shortages of personal protective equipment plague U.S. hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic. This "temporary but necessary" solution has helped disperse nearly 200,000 masks and thousands of gloves, gowns, goggles, and face shields to hospitals throughout the country by using using community members as the quality control and delivery team for equipment provided by local suppliers.

An informal awareness campaign led by Chinese Hospital in San Francisco's Chinatown has played a prominent role in helping to keep the spread of COVID-19 cases to a minimal in the community. Working with local health officials and using the city’s Chinese-language media, the hospital and community leaders implemented proactive protocols that included widespread mask-wearing and business closures. Although tourism and business revenue has significantly decreased, the community has been able to avoid outbreaks.

Lacking assistance from the government during the coronavirus pandemic, residents in one of the largest favelas in Sao Paulo, Brazil organized to raise funds and launch a series of initiatives to protect their community. Although not all were supportive of the efforts – which included residents acting as neighborhood monitors and using two schools as quarantine shelters – the community has been able to reduce transmission and keep the case count manageable.

Facing a shortage of supplies amid the coronavirus pandemic and with little help from the government on the horizon, doctors and community members across Venezuela "created a grassroots support network" as a means of making sure doctors would be properly outfitted to treat patients. Between pooled resources and various donations, the effort has resulted in "3,000 face masks, 2,000 meals, gallons of sanitizing alcohol, hand disinfectant and soap, and boxes of gloves" being delivered to medical professionals.

Two community living facilities have played integral roles in combatting the spread of diseases throughout New York's history by relying on mutual aid models. In the 1980's the Manhattan Plaza residence started the AIDS Project, which "assigned care partners to every person who got sick and deployed volunteers to deliver meals and get people to doctors." Now, as the COVID-19 pandemic poses a threat, similar efforts are underway by a younger generation at the Manhattan Plaza as well as at Penn South where the focus has been on keeping senior citizens safe.

In the United Kingdom, a grassroots network called Scrub Hub is gathering groups of volunteers to sew scrubs for hospital workers battling the COVID-19 pandemic. The groups are self-organizing, raising money on their own to buy the fabric, and have so far gathered thousands of people across the UK to help.

Citizens across Northeast Georgia are participating in grassroots community efforts to help supply masks for health workers. A Facebook group called, "Mask Making for Athens Area Healthcare Workers," is providing guidance and support in a myriad of ways— from sewing masks, delivering masks, or teaching others how to sew. The group has donated over 2,400 masks to 30 organizations and have received requests for over 4,400 more masks.

In response to a request from a local hospital, a Peterborough resident began using his 3-D printer to print face masks and clear plastic face shields to help protect frontline workers during the coronavirus pandemic. Although supplies are limited, some "makerspaces" are collaborating on the process and sharing materials and designs to keep operations running.