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 ...
Who wrote this garbage? Captain Obvious?
Oh and the home made ones are definitely not going to work. Waste of a perfectly good bra.
We also sent our medical supplies to China to help them out.
Could anyone not foresee a major outbreak would happen here?
Companies. They don’t give a damn about America or Americans. They just want money. They and their stooges sold us out.
Italy had an event. Hug a Chinese. Because to question letting in infecting foreigners into your country was “racist.”
Liberals not only will kill themselves and their families with their stupidity, they’ll kill us all.
I was told by 3 retailers Chinese were coming in early in the game buying all and shipping them back to China.
Seize their wealth and fling their families into the streets to starve.
Or is that too lenient?
“We will make them here”
Funny, literally right now there is a story running on LA TV of a company called Bayside which makes Sportswear for AST in my hometown of Brea CA. I was surprised as hell they manufacture in the USA. The have switched over production to medical masks. This is not a Mom and Pop operation, 500 employees multiple shifts, dozens of sewing machines with 30 more on order. There goal is one million masks by the end if April. As of now they are donating the masks for free mostly going to Hospitals. They aren’t medical grade but it’s getting to the point Hospitals aren’t getting picky.
Bill and Hill should've been executed for Treason long ago.
As should many others.
With 20-20 hindsight, who thinks this was a good idea?
I realized at the time, in the 70s, that the "ping pong" diplomacy with the ChiComs was not a good idea. The communists system needed to change before trade normalised. Nixon negotiated out of weakness, due to the impending Watergate scandal and did lots not in the best interest of Americans. Now we know the rest of the story and the decimation that resulted in small time America. We have made the enemy much stronger.
“Italy had an event. Hug a Chinese. Because to question letting in infecting foreigners into your country was “racist.”
Italy doubled down on stupid. Just yesterday there was an article I read how Italy let all these Chinese in legally (and illegally) to set up textile / clothing manufacturing shops in Northern Italy. Of course they undercut labor costs, dropped the quality of product which ultimately destroyed Italian company’s big and small. Many that had been around for generations.
Those of us who are left will have a lot of work to do.
Haven’t done Drudge in forever. I do comparisons on four different news sites but Drudge hasn’t been one of them in a long while.
There was a dry cleaning shop owner on the Howie Carr radio program who said dry cleaning kills many/most virus/bacteria. I have no idea if this is true, but interesting nonetheless.
Could these 95-rated masks, etc be dry cleaned. Who knows.
I run infection prevention in a large hospital, they're not in my garage.
What about the consumers who forced them to do it by refusing to pay a premium for US goods?
Yeah, I know there's more to it than that but seriously, this is America.
Back before Hillary, Wal-Mart bragged about "made in the USA".
And I and a lot of other people, complained to the stores in general about "Cheap Sh*t from China" and got the runaround.
You know, melamine in dog food, formaldehyde in drywall, toxic chemicals in toothpaste, carcinogens in blood pressure medicine.
And, of course, the LOVELY shortages of masks and protective equipment, not to mention antibiotics.
Cardinal Medical, even before the Kung Flu, had to recall about a million surgical gowns made in China due to non-sterility issues.
Which is why President Trump was right when he said, “We can rebuild the economy, quickly. We can’t bring back lives.”
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