US fashion brands having to make medical masks expose a failure of the health system

Across the US, clothing companies and legions of home sewers are churning out face masks as fast as they can to meet the critical shortage of masks available to American medical workers. It’s a heartening and admirable effort by both companies and individuals to assist in a moment of national need. There’s just one problem: Many of these masks are apparently being made from regular cloth textiles such as cotton, which research says offers little protection against infectious diseases such as the new coronavirus.