It is true that there are a lot of small businesses that employ people and huge corporations run by multimillionaires and multibillionaires often are frowned upon because many people feel they don’t pay their fair share agree of taxes. Now, we see a lot of them had the resources to help in emergency situations as well as some smaller businesses with small facilities.

Automobile makers, Amazon, some clothing manufacturers have converted their equipment to manufacture ventilators, respirators, hand sanitizers and emergency clothing including scrubs and masks and whatever else is necessary to supply to hospitals and other medical facilities. The Jacob Javits Center in New York and the New Jersey Expo Center in Raritan Center, Edison are just two of the facilities that have been converted to emergency triage for coronavirus patients.

No matter what anybody says about large corporations, when I worked for the phone company, all I had to do was: wake up, walk into the building, put in my time and leave at the end of the day. I did not have to put any equity or take out any loans to build that building. So, I appreciated those entrepreneurs who have their own brick and mortar buildings to help in an immediate crisis.

Although these companies are converting their facilities, you have to have workers who are skilled to do the job. Those workers are being placed in those facilities and a lot of those skills were learned in vocational schools. We must not look down upon vocational schools as we have before, because in some instances they are more valuable than some four-year college courses. Remember, those vocational schools have to have the same subjects you have in high schools. Math is very important. You have to know exactly what you are doing when making any measurements in any field that they are teaching.

As I mentioned before in a previous editorial, one of my relatives went to Middlesex County Vocational School in East Brunswick after the Revlon factory in Edison closed. They are the ones who paid for her to go to Middlesex County Vocational School. After that training, she landed a job in a major hospital in New Brunswick in the pharmacy. Now, with this crisis, thousands of jobs are opening up in warehouses where people are needed to do stocking and other jobs.

This also drives the fact that we have to bring our important manufacturing back to the United States. I remember the huge Merck Facility in Rahway, New Jersey and I personally knew a lot of people who worked in that facility. Johnson & Johnson has several facilities in Piscataway, New Jersey. ER Squibb was another. This is also why STEM is very important.

After a crisis, there is always a silver lining. People have to think outside of the box, and maybe ingenuity will come about.
Here is a perfect example where a small factory in New York decided to stay open and retool in order to make masks:
Over hectic weekend, New York factories retool to make coronavirus face shields for nurses (Source: Reuters.com). Michael Bednark was able to contact his suppliers to send supplies to produce protective masks for medical personnel. Bednark’s staff were able to make a prototype that was presented to the New York Department of Health. It was approved and the rest is history. (see link)

The most important thing is we learn to lean on each other when the going gets tough.

I would like to thank everyone who has to work during this crisis and also their families who are also affected by this.

C.M.