BUSINESS○ Some nations restrict exports to
ensure they have enough at homeNow, Even Masks Can’t
Cross Borders
Michael Einhorn’s medical supply company in
Brooklyn, N.Y., may run out of masks used to pro-
tect against coronavirus in two weeks unless the
Chinese manufacturer of his branded protec-
tive gear resumes production soon. He’s already
rationing supplies.
“We’re having to make tough decisions every
day on who gets masks and who doesn’t,” says
Einhorn, president of Dealmed-Park Surgical,
which employs almost 100 people. “Do masks go
to the suburban hospital or the 911 responders? It’s
a huge responsibility, and we know we’re going to
make some mistakes.”
Einhorn’s dilemma is playing out on a global
stage. With the deadly virus now present in more
than 130 countries, companies are unable to match
demand for the millions of masks needed by health
workers. That’s led governments to jockey for sup-
plies: The U.S. is stockpiling, while Russia andSouth Korea have banned mask exports altogether.
The bans are desperate measures by govern-
ments to save what little domestic production
they have for their own citizens. In some coun-
tries, including Japan and Germany, doctors are
being told to reuse the single mask they get daily.
China produces about half of the world’s masks,
and the shortages have governments and compa-
nies rethinking their reliance on the country for
critical medical supplies.
“Most places are not prepared, so you now have
a cascade of countries putting these export bans in
place,” says Stephen Morrison, director of the Global
Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. “It’s not
a long-term solution. Everyone throwing up export
bans isn’t going to solve the problem of how you will
get the products in time to serve these acute needs.”
Peter Navarro, an adviser to President Trump,THE BOTTOM LINE Just 15% of undergraduates in the U.S. did
their coursework totally online in September 2019. That number is
about to explode.companies, such as Corinthian Colleges Inc.
and Apollo Education Group Inc.’s University of
Phoenix, said they were reaching out to lower-
income, minority students ill-served by the edu-
cation establishment. But many were, in fact,
hard-selling expensive degrees of questionable
value, leaving students with crushing debt, gov-
ernment investigators found. After media scrutiny
and congressional inquiries, that market started
collapsing a decade ago, and traditional nonprofit
and state colleges stepped up their online games.
Many elite colleges, including small liberal arts
schools, have resisted online classes. They’ve
always justified their cost, which can top $70,
a year, by trumpeting their small classes, mentor-
ing from professors, and extracurricular activities.
But the coronavirus is forcing them to embrace dis-
tance learning for likely the rest of the school year.
Students and families aren’t thrilled at the pros-
pect, either, even after some schools—including
Harvard, Princeton, and Middlebury—offered
room-and-board refunds. Amelia Pollard, a 21-year-
old junior at Middlebury, has already been told by
her history of American conservatism professor
that the seminar’s scheduled time may not workanymore because her own young child’s school was
shut because of the virus. “There’s a lot of moving
parts that were not anticipated,” Pollard says.
Lab sciences and music classes present spe-
cial challenges. Nora Heaphy, a 20-year-old junior
at Yale, expects her Arabic language class will be
fine online, but she isn’t sure about her introduc-
tory physics course. “That’s going to be a hard one,
mostly because I and many other students heavily
rely on office hours and study halls to complete the
homework,” she says. “I don’t know how that’s going
to work.” —John Hechinger and Janet Lorin Empty seats at Yale○ Chinese-made masks14