GM donating a million masks to California
General Motors on Thursday announced a donation of 1 million face masks across California, including for use at a testing lab in Valencia, along with funding for 5,000 flu vaccines for residents of the Golden State.
GM’S support will help protect workers at the new COVID-19 testing lab, police departments, schools, homeless shelters and communities most impacted by the pandemic and devastating wildfires, the automaker said in a statement issued from its Detroit headquarters.
The California Health and Human Services Agency will receive 300,000 face masks to help ensure employees at the newly built COVID-19 testing lab in Valencia have the personal protective equipment they need to stay safe at work, according to the statement.
GM is also donating 5,000 flu vouchers that those in need across the greater Los Angeles area can redeem at any CVS Pharmacy location, it said. These vouchers will go to public health and community organizations in the region to distribute to members of the communities they serve.
Shelves emptying again
The race is on to stock up on paper goods and cleaning supplies as shoppers fear another lockdown is on the horizon.
One industry expert says the buying binge, first seen in spring during the first pandemic restrictions, will be worse this time around.
“We’re headed for a product shortage and consumer panic of unprecedented proportions,” said Burt P. Flickinger III with the retail consulting firm Strategic Resource Group. “We’ve been doing store checks, and one wholesaler put out five pallets of Bounty paper towels. Within five minutes they were completely sold out.”
With COVID-19 cases spiking, Gov. Gavin Newsom moved much of California back to the state’s restrictive purple tier last week, and the fear of another lockdown has fueled panic buying all over again.
The biggest supply issue seems to be paper products: 21% of shelves that stock paper towels and toilet paper are empty, the highest level in at least a month, according to market research company IRI. Cleaning supplies have remained level at 16%. Before the pandemic, 5% to 7% of consumer goods were typically out of stock, IRI said.
Walmart said Tuesday it’s having trouble keeping up with demand for cleaning supplies in some stores. Supermarket chains are limiting how much toilet paper and paper towels shoppers can buy after demand spiked recently. And Amazon is sold out of most disinfectant wipes and paper towels.
Walmart said while supplies are stressed in some areas, it thinks it will be able to handle any stockpiling better now than it did earlier this year. Amazon said it’s working with manufacturers to get items such as disinfecting wipes, paper towels and hand sanitizer in stock.
Vaccine effectiveness improved
Pfizer said Wednesday that new test results show its coronavirus vaccine is 95% effective, is safe and also protects older people most at risk of dying — the last data needed to seek emergency use of limited shot supplies as the catastrophic outbreak worsens across the globe.
The announcement from Pfizer and its German partner Biontech, just a week after they revealed the first promising preliminary results, comes as the team is preparing within days to formally ask U.S. regulators to allow emergency use of the vaccine.
They also have begun “rolling submissions” for the vaccine with regulators in Europe, the U.K. and Canada and soon will add this new data.
Pfizer and Biontech had initially estimated the vaccine was more than 90% effective after 94 infections had been counted in a study that included 44,000 people.
The companies have not yet released detailed data on their study, and results have not been analyzed by independent experts. Also still to be determined are important questions such as how long protection lasts and whether people might need boosters.