Oh my God. The NIH and the CDC are not the departments responsible for hardware.
The responsibilities go like this:
1. The hospital is supposed to have a plan and equipment to deal with a mass casualty situation for 28 days.
2. The City/County Health Deaprtment should back you the hospitals.
3. The State Department of Emergency Management should be the backup for a statewide emergency. This includes the National Guard.
4. FEMA provides back up for the states.
5. The Military Helps Out where it can.
Nowhere in the physical “prep” (masks, gowns, vents, toilet paper) are the CDC and NIH responsible for any of this stuff. They are VM the ones to tell you what you should have in your local, regional, and state kit.
I love how these people who have no clue of the structure and responsibilities of the system write articles about where it failed.
Most of the people on FR pump their fist in outrage without taking ten seconds to do the slightest bit of research.
I am now a retired RN, but I remember the whole Ebola crisis.
Healthcare staff was required to watch a video of PPE staff needed to wear with Ebola patients.
It consisted of gloves, mask and gown. Neck, lower legs, shoes, and the space between the end of your gown and the start of the gloves exposed. Africa had better PPE.
This was the same PPE that the two nurses who got Ebola wore.
I knew then all the hospital administrators ( most of whom are not medically trained who have an MBA) were absolutely clueless, or they just didnt give a damn.
It was all about making a buck.
Would I work in a hospital now, and volunteer for this effort? No way.
The CDC, NIH need to be disbanded, and a more nimble department needs to be enacted. We also need more research dollars for viruses.
Hospitals need to be more prepared, instead of building palaces.
Thank you
“The National Institutes of Health is the government agency primarily responsible for biomedical and public health research. After SARS and, again, after H1N1, the NIH, along with the CDC, should have been paying close attention to illnesses emerging in China and other third-world countries.”