Problem is, Chinese suppliers sell FOB, meaning export cleared delivered to a (air)port terminal in China. Customers in Germany want to buy DDP (import cleared and delivered a specified location in Germany). There you have a structural problem. One that would be easy to overcome, if it wasn't product liability. The importer of record takes product liability in case the manufacturer is outside the EU. Good luck getting that insured (I tried). Ultimately, it will get sorted out.

The easiest way to get supplies going would be if the government did these two things:

- grant interest free loans for these products to allow importers to pay suppliers upfront (that's how this business works) for government orders

- take the product liability risk for products wutyh the proper (paper) certification

That would allow a lot of people to get this stuff. Rigjtt now it is a pain the ass.

The masks you are talking about, we already have citizens sewing them in a large-scale volunteer effort.

(Let’s present solutions, HN. Don’t just tell people things won’t work.)

These help with droplets and with reducing face touching.

You might say "but that's toilet paper, who cares", but empty shelves in super markets in Germany are a great way to make people remember the past and go into panic mode.

What people do right now is buy masks individually from Chinese vendors on Amazon, and they are getting shipped. If you want them quickly, you can pay for airmail. China can deliver, but for some reason, Germany doesn't take them.

People aren't rational actors, and by saying "they don't really need toilet paper", you're not solving the issue that is people seeing empty shelves for toilet paper, bread and soap and thinking that the system is failing.

You don't want the public to become nervous, ever. Nervous people make terrible decisions. And for a government to look uncaring/impotent is the way to make the population nervous.

Also, I don't know whether they'd actually need to increase production. According to super market chains, they have more than enough but it's in their storage centers and they have issues/aren't prioritizing getting it into the stores.

I saw a intriguing change in conversations I had over the last couple of days. First it was, like, no need, we got this. Just yesterday I found a call for an offer from the Armed Forces procurement department in my Inbox, while you now find direct contact details for these kind of things online. Not sure what happened, but there sure is a change in how authorities are approaching this.

It's gotten so bad where I live that Aldi has apparently decided to just give up and use the space for potting soil.

The pasta shelves are re-stocked though, as is bread. Berlin isn't quite there yet.

But certainly an insight into the culture and humanity of some people. Alas we have a society that seems to always see good responsible people suffer at the hands of the irresponsible.

The opposite is happening, you have (local, temporary) shortages and some politician who hasn't bought their own groceries in the last decade says "I assure you, there are no shortages", while everybody sees the empty shelves on a daily basis.

Equally, once many heard news of something was being brought up, the net effect was to drive others into panic and drive them to do the same.

Panic begats panic. So you start to enter into the aspect of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_psychology

But now that people filled their shelves, I guess that store supplies are back to normal.

But people worried about non-fire safe cladding seemed equally happy to fill their homes with flammable paper - the hypocrisy of madness plays out in many ways.

Ideally you would import it from a vetted manufacturer

I don't think anything but FOB is common, except in specific cases.

I asked the Allianz and Munich Re (the insurers insurer). Both declined to insure that at the moment.

Which sucks. Because the gap between FOB and DDP would otherwise just be logistics. Ignoring prices, that is rather easy to solve. I try to get hold of someone at the armed forces department charged with that. Hopefully it leads somewhere.

EDIT: Product liability is th problem. Transport insurance is easy to obtain and no problem.

Apparently you can get coverage, or rather a waiver, from the government if you are a non-profit.

As a side note, the government is now seriously launching itself into procurement. For example German states are starting procurement themselves.

There's a crap ton of unused aircraft right now. You would just need heads of state to direct the airlines to fulfill that need, simplify clearance, customs, etc. Treat it like wartime.

Maybe I can convince someone to give it a try. If not, I'll just go back building my company as planned. Would still suck so, to have look at the mess from the sidelines.

People who are handy with a sewing machine can even make pretty decent ones themselves [0]

[0] https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/best-materials-make-diy-...

This material is extremely difficult to produce, which makes it hard to scale on short notice, so its price in China shot up 50 times.

There are so much more things than ventilators that are much easier to scale.

Industrial scale production, transport, making sure it doesn’t set everything on fire, and supplying a medically appropriate quality without risking hyperoxia? That’s hard.

Also oxygen enrichers could be made and distributed, they could also help some people. I know of a person who made one themselves in a week. Both should be a lot easier than ventilators (which of course also should be pursued).

If you read the reports from Italy, they first ran out of ventilators, then CPAP machines and finally even oxygen.

But for some reason the talk is very concentrated on ventilators for now.

Also other equipment saves lives. Pulse oximeters so those needing help breathing can be identified. Protective equipment. A lot of things that save lives and are a thousand times easier to make than ventilators.