A century-old family firm located deep in rural Maine, Puritan Medical Products was one of only two companies in the world that made the nasal swabs necessary for Covid-19 testing, and these precision-engineered tufted sticks were in perishingly short supply. With tens of thousands of lives hanging in the balance--and old facilities to retrofit, people to hire, and machinery to acquire, Puritan executed a lightning-fast expansion that proved not only the company’s mettle but also the potential of public-private partnership and the power of Yankee ingenuity.