Posted on 03/21/2020 3:38:01 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
The critical shortage of medical supplies across the U.S., including testing swabs, protective masks, surgical gowns and hand sanitizer, can be tied to a sudden drop in imports, mostly from China, The AP has found.
Trade data shows the decline in shipments started in mid-February after the spiraling coronavirus outbreak in China led the country to shutter factories and disrupted ports. Some emergency rooms, hospitals and clinics have now run out of key medical supplies, while others are rationing personal protective equipment like gloves and masks.
The United States counts on receiving the vast majority of its medical supplies from China, where the coronavirus has infected more than 80,000 people and killed more than 3,200. When Chinese medical supply factories began coming back on line last month, their first priority was their own hospitals.
The government required makers of N95 masks to sell all or part of their production internally instead of shipping masks to the U.S.
The most recent delivery of medical-grade N95 masks arrived from China about a month ago, on Feb. 19. And as few as 13 shipments of non-medical N95 masks have arrived in the past month — half as many as arrived the same month last year. N95 masks are used in industrial settings, as well as hospitals, and filter out 95% of all airborne particles, including ones too tiny to be blocked by regular masks.
Governors across the country are becoming panicked as states run out of equipment. President Donald Trump has urged them to buy masks on the open market, but few if any are available.
“Without adequate protection, more of our hospital staff could become ill, which would mean there wouldn’t be people to care for patients,” said Nancy Foster, the American Hospital Association’s vice president of quality and patient safety policy.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
How long would it take, in a properly run country, to start producing N95 medical masks?
Fear and panic from the AP spread by useful idiots.
3-4 decades of Wall Street selling out Main Street for ChiCom slave labor, and here were are.
With 20-20 hindsight, who thinks this was a good idea?
And the media solution to this problem is to fan the flames, trying to make China mad at Trump.
Correction: make that Wall Street and Washington selling out Main Street.
There are plenty of Facebook posts by medical personnel complaining about a lack of proper protection. And there’s a shortage of nasal swabs to take samples for testing.
If you send all production overseas, then you’re gonna have supply problems.
I agree. This is nothing short of criminal incompetence or criminal conspiracy. At this point, it’s anticipated demand, not critical (actual) demand.
We will make them here.
US fault for getting in bed with commie whores
The Marshall Plan took four years, IIRC.
And that was decades ago.
I think we can do way better than that.
The only thing standing in the way is Congress .
By the way and not for nothing - soap and water is as good if not better, and you can still get plenty of it.
use copper oxide infused material for filters in n95 mask
On a war time footing we should be and we will over come this. THE SUPPLY LINES MUST BE CUT MOVING FORWARD those involved after that will be prosecuted
Some days back there was a report that China nationalized an American owned factory that produced masks and other medical supplies; a ship loaded with their products was bound for the US, but China forced them to turn around.
3M and Honeywell in Minnesota are ramping up production into the millions.
Well, obviously a fully vetted 3M product would be welcome, but I need 500 this week and more in ten days.
I have lovely, kind hospital volunteers making products at home which they bring to the door in the hopes that they will prove useful, but I have an empty Polartec factory a mile down the road.
Does anyone know how long a national effort to equip empty factories with production equipment to start turning out N95 equivalent masks would take, and if the big producers can start faster and make more?
Recycle folks! Used Gowns and masks certainly can be treated with a mist / fog of anti viral followed by a run in sanitize heat setting in Industrial cloths dryers. Maybe the masks could be compromised but at least it seems feasible and can be tested for effectiveness in no time. It’s time to think outside the box people!!
Don't stop for lunch.
Even WITHOUT 20-20 hindsight, who EVER thought this would lead to a good outcome?
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