Pandemic PPE: What Good Will Come of the COVID-19 Crisis?

Right about 50 years ago, in April 1970, the Apollo 13 space mission went into crisis mode. An explosion prompted the astronauts and their support team at Mission Control, all acting around the clock under tremendous pressure, to resort to backup systems and improvised solutions. The spacecraft, its supplies, and equipment had to be used in ways that far exceeded manufacturers’ specifications. Survival depended on it. “I don’t care about what anything was designed to do. I care about what it can do,” NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz famously said, as portrayed in the movie Apollo 13.