Yahoo Finance’s Melody Hahm joins On The Move to discuss the difficulties retailers are facing as they pivot their production to manufacture mask amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Let's get back to the matter at hand, however. I want to talk a little bit about the Defense Production Act that apparently has not yet been formally invoked by the administration. But we're seeing a lot of different industries try to pitch in on the efforts to combat COVID-19. One of them is the fashion and retail industry. Melody Hahm has been tracking that for us. And, Melody, we're getting more and more reports of various fashion companies actually making masks right now-- surgical masks.

MELODY HAHM: Yeah. And, Julie, it's so interesting to me, because it's not just the low-end, you know. A lot of people initially thought for sure, the likes of Hanes, which did announce over the weekend that they will also be manufacturing surgical masks, of course will get in this fight.

But also luxury makers like Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent have also agreed to pitch in on this fight. Both of them are owned by the French company Kering. And on Sunday, they said that as soon as the approval for being able to pivot and essentially completely refurbish their manufacturing plants for designer bags that cost thousands of dollars, they would in turn be making what is comparable to N95 masks, which is manufactured, of course, by 3M.

I have to say though, Julie, I just hopped off a phone call with an R&D developer of a lot of this mask technology based in Boston, which was founded by a surgeon who's been operating in the industry for over 40 years. And they actually are working on patented technology to work with a lot of these retailers.

Because, from their perspective, unfortunately a lot of these places that were making perhaps underwear, jeans, some leather goods, they don't have the actual infrastructure in place, even if what their intention-- what they are trying to do right now is obviously very much worth noting and noteworthy. I don't think that there is the kind of infrastructure in place and a lot of the resources, from the medical standpoint, to actually be of help from a health care perspective.

So I think this is going to be a constant push and pull that we're going to experience where, perhaps there might be second-order effects that are to the detriment of a lot of these health care workers who are saying that even N95 masks are not doing a good job at sealing away the contamination. And then even the last kind of component, looking at startups.

These are not just the large, big-box retailers. I'm speaking with a founder here of Sene Studios, which is a ready-to-wear brand. And they were working on very high-end tuxedos, some apparel. And now they have decided to fully forego that sort of operation and be able to go 180 into the mass manufacturing space. All I can say is that I hope that they are advising with enough people with medical expertise to make sure that it's a worthwhile venture.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Melody, I was curious, has anybody put a number as to how many ventilators are needed? I was talking to a doctor in Atlanta who said there are several private practices nationwide, which have anesthesia-- anesthesia-type devices which are easily convertible to ventilators. But nobody from the CDC or the government is asking for private practices to turn these ventilators over to hospitals. So do we know how many ventilators we need, for instance, GM and Tesla to build, as they say they're going to try to do?

MELODY HAHM: Well, it's so interesting you mentioned that, Adam, because from the medical professionals that I've been speaking to, there seems to be a lot of tapping into refurbishing ventilators for those nonessential surgeries, as we know, that many of them have been canceled not only by patients from the doctors themselves. Anecdotally, one of my family members was supposed to go into kidney surgery next week. And the doctor's office actually canceled that appointment.

My understanding is that tens of thousands of ventilators are needed. We heard from a press conference last week from Donald Trump and his task force that around 5,000 ventilators would be commissioned from perhaps that Defense Act that has not-- that has been enacted, but for a long time was kind of bandied about whether it should be implemented.

So, Adam, I think there-- it's a piecemeal kind of solution. And I know that a lot of doctors offices, perhaps even vets, are now trying to figure out how they can give up their spaces for those essential surgeries, for essential kind of holding areas, rather than, perhaps, taking on maybe cosmetic surgeries or any sort of frivolous or unnecessary procedure.