NEWS AND MORE's video: A start-up s pandemic gamble: Americans will pay more for Made in USA face masks

A start-up's pandemic gamble: Americans will pay more for 'Made in USA' face masks Dan Izhaky has bet over $4 million that the pandemic will change what Americans are willing to pay for high quality face masks. It's a risky gamble. Before COVID-19 hit, the United States imported much of the personal protection equipment needed by health care providers, mainly from Asia. Some U.S. companies pivoted in the crisis, such as liquor companies churning out hand sanitizer and plastics firms making face shields. But one item that remains in tight supply is N95 facemasks, which provide a high level of filtration against airborne contaminants and are closely regulated by the U.S. government. Izhaky, a former New York stockbroker, is president of United Safety Tech, a startup that is poised to open a new N95 mask factory, possibly within weeks, in this suburb of Los Angeles. While the plant is still being fitted with machinery, his goal is to make one million masks a day when it's up and running. "The big question we face is what happens post-pandemic," said Izhaky, "when you have a hospital administrator or whoever it is that's in charge of purchasing" looking at U.S.-made masks that cost more. The pricing of many types of protective equipment remain elevated by shortages, but once the market normalizes Izhaky estimates his masks will cost about 30% more than Chinese masks, or about $1.15 each. "People will respect the 'Made in America' label and they will pay more," said Izhaky, adding "There's a bunch of things that need to happen in the supply chain to make us more competitive versus overseas markets but I believe it's going to happen over time." Other domestic producers are likely to face the same challenge, including industry giants Izhaky will compete with 3M has quadrupled its domestic production of N95 masks since the start of the pandemic, opening a new 120,000-square-foot factory in South Dakota and now makes 100 million masks a month. Honeywell International Inc has opened "multiple new locations in Phoenix" to make N95 masks, said spokesman Eric Krantz, and converted half of a factory in Rhode Island from making safety glasses to masks. Making masks isn't that hard. The process is highly automated and doesn't require a costly cleanroom. But getting a dependable supply of the materials, particularly the specialized layer of filtration material that makes them effective, is a challenge. "We never want to be back here again," said Izhaky. "We want to learn from this and we want to be leaders in this space and in order to do that we had to basically come up with our own investment to make it happen," he added. (Production: Sandra Stojanovic, Rollo Ross)