According to the CDC, COVID-19 is believed to be spread mainly from person-to-person, “through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.” In order to safely treat patients, healthcare personnel must don appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), including facemasks and respirators. PPE shortages due to the projected high influx of patients in various U.S. cities are inspiring several crowdsourced and open-sourced designs of facemasks, respirators, and other medical equipment to be manufactured using conventional and additive manufacturing. Engineers at MITRE are currently working to review various open-sourced solutions to these PPE shortages.
