COVID-19 Restored My Faith in Humanity

Several years ago, we lost a great man named Walter Haxton. Walter was an entrepreneur with a huge heart who wanted to fix the homeless issue we face in Hagerstown, Maryland. As of June 2019, Washington County had approximately 249 homeless people. One of the challenges these people face is that most of our shelters are only open during winter months. Walter believed that the solution to this problem was not private industry, not government. As such, Walter created Hagerstown Maryland Summer Homeless Shelters Incorporated. It was a very bold plan devised by Walter - buy a home, then have homeless move in and fix up that home as their rent. After the home was fixed up, sell the home and purchase more homes. Unfortunately Walter fell prey to a romance scam, believing that a foreign woman overseas was romantically interested in him. He spent much of his time trying to help a woman who didn't even exist. Ultimately Walter had to sell the home he had worked so hard on, and passed away shortly after finding out he had been scammed. Many of us truly believe that Walter passed away from a broken heart.

For a long time now, I've seen a very large divide in our nation. This has been a divide forged by biased, sensationalist media reporting and propaganda. This divide has been growing out of control for at least the past 10 years, possibly more. I've seen the ugly side of humanity - resorting to not just vicious personal attacks and firing people for their political views, but even violence against elected officials simply because of their political party.

I had almost given up home in people being able to set aside their differences and work towards a common good.

Then the coronavirus, aka COVID-19, came along.

Now don't get me wrong - yes the virus resulted in a complete emptying of shelves, including respirator masks, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, milk, bread, and canned goods. However, was that truly unexpected when people are required to quarantine themselves for 14 days just because they were in contact with someone who had the virus?

But what truly restored my faith in humanity is how people have come together to try and help each other. All of these solutions have been implemented voluntarily without government mandate.

Do you need toilet paper?

Yes, the lack of available toilet paper became a serious problem for those of us who don't purchase toilet paper in bulk from Sam's Club or Costco. But one of the things I've seen locally is that people who had an excess supply started giving away that excess supply at no cost to those who needed it.

Undoubtedly these unsung heroes of the great toilet paper shortage of 2020 deserve medals. You'll most likely never read a news article about them, but they exist all across the country.

Sewing for health

In response to the dwindling supply of protective equipment for healthcare workers, businesses such as JoAnn Fabrics started giving away kits to create masks and gowns for healthcare workers.

This business has been forced to close their doors in many states due to being deemed "non-essential", but instead of tightening the belt to cover expenses during this downturn, the company starts giving away fabric to help those in need.

3D Printing Finds its Niche

For many years now, 3D printing has found its niche in the healthcare industry by printing prosthetic limbs, significantly reducing the time and cost for traditional amputee patients. With the spread of the coronavirus 3D printing has taken on a new role - supplying equipment to healthcare workers.

This is probably an incomplete list, but here's a list of medical equipment I've seen being 3D printed for hospitals all across the United States, and probably the rest of the world:

• Face Shields
• Respirators (still need to add filter cartridges afterwards)
• Ventilator valves
• Ventilator splitters - allowing up to four patients to share a single ventilator
• Valves turning snorkel masks into protective equipment for healthcare workers
• Safety Goggles

Open Source Off The Shelf Ventilators

One of the biggest challenges many healthcare providers face during a crisis is the lack of available ventilators. These devices which enable people to breath typically cost between $25,000 to $50,000 each.

Researchers at the University of Florida are working on developing an open source ventilator which can be assembled using components from hardware stores such as Home Depot or Lowe's. The estimated cost of these ventilators? $125 to $250 each.

They say the "necessity is the mother of all invention". I have to admit that today I'm proud of my fellow humans for their invention in this time of crisis.

Ken is a Cyber Security professional, real estate investor, and author.