Dan Izaki has bet over $4 million at the pandemic will change what Americans are willing to pay for high quality face masks.

You know, we have the mission of re shoring the production of PP to the United States, bringing it back for a lot of reasons.

Before Cove in 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 turning out hand sanitizer and plastics firms making face shields.

But one item that remains in tight supply is N 95 face masks, which provide a high level of filtration against airborne contaminants and are closely regulated by the US government.

Zaki, a former New York stockbroker, is president of United Safety Tech Ah, startup that is poised to open a new and 95 mask factory in Laverne, California, possibly within weeks.

We use a completely domestically sourced supply chain, which means all the materials that go into this mask are truly made in America that is critical to the biosecurity off our country.

The pricing of many types of protective equipment remains elevated by shortages.

But once the market normalizes, Izaki estimates that is, masks will cost about 30% more than Chinese masks, or about a dollar 15 each.

He hopes that the pandemic will make Americans more willing to pay a premium, or that US government policy will mandate more domestic sourcing, which would benefit his venture.

People will, you know, will respect the Made in America, um, label on.

They will pay more.

Um, you know the bunch of things that need to happen in supply chain, um, to put us, you know, to make us more competitive versus overseas markets, and I believe that's gonna happen over time.

But there's always risk making masks isn't that hard.

The process is highly automated and doesn't require a costly clean room.

But getting a dependable supply of the materials, particularly the specialized layer of filtration material that makes them effective, is a challenge.

Other domestic producers are likely to face the same challenges, including industry giant three M, which has quadrupled its domestic production of N 95 masks since the pandemic started and makes 100 million masks a month, but a Zaki is ambitious.

This whole facility, which is about 45,000 square feet, will be full of of equipment making respirators A Z I mentioned earlier.

We are planning to produce a million and 95 respirators per day by the end of the second quarter of 2021.

And you know what I hope?

I hope each one of them goes to a first line responders that needs them.