3M, Honeywell to manufacture face masks, medical devices as coronavirus outbreak triggers shortages

3M and Honeywell are among several companies now collaborating to manufacture face masks and medical devices for health care workers on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis. Yahoo! Finance's Melody Hahm joins The Final Round to discuss the latest.

Video Transcript

JEN ROGERS: I want to bring in Melody Hahm out in California. Melody, you've been working on a really important story, which is health care workers on the frontlines. We are hearing about this at a lot of hospitals in New York that they just don't have the equipment that they need, especially these N95 masks. Is production ramping up? How is this problem going to be solved?

MELODY HAHM: Yeah, and Jen, I don't want to make light of this by any means, but my cousin actually works at Columbia Presbyterian, and she was sharing an anecdote that now BYOB stands for bring your own bandana. And it's not at all in jest, and that's essentially what everyone is being told from the top down, that they simply do not have enough masks to go around, even after multiple re-usages. We see the scarring remains that remain on a lot of the surgeons, doctors, and nurses' faces all around the country and the globe.

What's so interesting is Honeywell did announce that they will be adding up to 500 jobs, maybe more in the near future, in their plant in Rhode Island. And actually Darius Adamczyk, Honeywell's chairman and CEO, said in a statement, we are honored to support the US government's efforts to protect Americans with personal protective equipment made right here in the United States.

Jen, what has started as a health crisis has become a political one. And actually earlier in our programming on "On The Move," we had George H.W. Bush's former Director of Economic Policy Todd Buchholz, who essentially said that the manufacturing resurgence back in the States is out of necessity, and it's not necessarily because we're seeing more of those jobs being back by choice. It's more so for a national security reason as we think about the Defense Production Act that Trump has mentioned over the last couple of days.

I also want to point out that high-end retailers, like St. Laurent, Balenciaga, are actually starting to make their own face masks in order to ease shortages in Paris, in Spain, all across Europe. And they are planning to start manufacturing in earnest once they get full approval. I've spoken with a startup here called SAME Studio, which is a men's apparel company. They're completely pivoting 180 degrees and doubling down on using their manufacturing plant here in the United States in order to make N95 masks.

I spoke with someone earlier today who has been working on R&D for five years on making sure to have the masks with the proper sealing that are supposedly more sophisticated than N95. And they're in talks with a factory in upstate New York in order to get this in production in a matter of weeks, according to the COO there.

So Jen, by all measures, this perhaps is the one silver lining that a lot of companies across different industries are galvanizing and saying, hey, we need to put our heads together. And let's be honest, people are not going to necessarily be out buying Hermes bags right now. They won't be necessarily buying $400 pairs of pants. So perhaps, this is the best way from the business's perspective as well.

JEN ROGERS: It's good to see companies coming together, Melody. I, too, have friends and family in health care. And anybody that has stockpiled or bought a lot of masks, all of these hospitals are taking donations as well to bring to health care workers on the frontlines. So it's not too late if you have some in your house. So Melody Hahm, thank you so much for that story.