By Harry Minium
The safe choice for Murry Pitts would have been to reduce production, furlough some of his employees and ride out the ongoing financial crisis.
His company, Burlington Medical, has prospered in recent years by making surgical radiation protection gear for doctors and nurses. However, as COVID-19 began to overwhelm hospitals in New York and other big cities, elective surgeries virtually disappeared and demand for his products fell.
But Pitts knew the right decision for the 100 Burlington employees, as well as the well-being of healthcare workers in the United States and Europe, was not to retrench.