Posted on 03/23/2020 2:33:28 PM PDT by bitt
The national shortage of N95 respirator masks can be traced back to 2009 after the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, when the Obama administration was advised to replenish a national stockpile but did not, according to reports from Bloomberg News and the Los Angeles Times.
The Trump administration is scrambling to replenish a stockpile of protective medical gear for healthcare workers and patients as the coronavirus sweeps across the nation. N95 respirator masks are one of the most needed medical supplies amid the outbreak.
The George W. Bush administration published the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza plan in 2005, which called on the federal government to distribute medical supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile governed by the Health and Human Services Department in the event of an outbreak.
In 2009, the H1N1 outbreak hit the United States, leading to 274,304 hospitalizations, 12,469 deaths, and a depletion of N95 respirator masks.
A federally backed task force and a safety equipment organization both recommended to the Obama administration that the stockpile be replenished with the 100 million masks used after the H1N1 outbreak.
Charles Johnson, president of the International Safety Equipment Association, said that advice was never heeded.
“Our association is unaware of any major effort to restore the stockpile to cover that drawdown,” he said.
HHS Secretary Alex Azar reported last month that only 12 million N95 masks were available in the stockpile, “a tiny fraction of the 3.5 billion masks one of Azar’s deputies later testified the nation’s healthcare system would need,” the Los Angeles Times noted.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
So willing to hang Trump after the daily attacks for nearly his entire first administration? There is no prior administration that has undergone this level of corruptive attacks and attempts to remove a president from office!
Obama has been gone 3 years.. This is on the CDC or whoever is supposed to think of these things.
“ In Trump’s fourth year, that is on both his and Barry’s admins.”
Oh ya. Trump’s been sitting around doing nothing, collecting a paycheck and perks.
...oh. Wait. He forfeits His Paycheck.
2010 (H1N1 novel virus):
“The healthcare industry did a poor job of maintaining adequate supplies of N95 respirators. It wasn’t until the pandemic began in earnest that the industry took a hard look at its existing supply of N95s, and only then did many companies realize that they would be facing a significant shortage.”
https://cdn.hpnonline.com/inside/2010-01/1001-PS.html
Apparently, the CDC and our healthcare industry did not learn, did not care and/or did not want to spend the money. Where did money for that go?
HHS
Alex Azar
Exactly what I was thinking. Despite the radical “resist” movement, bad press, constant haranguing, untold number of investigations, radical courts enjoining legal edicts, the deepstate, corrupt FBI CIA and congress, and being an outsider, he has still managed remarkable progress in rebuilding this country and the conservative agenda. And yet we have people on this very forum that believe he doesn’t do enough for them. Ingrates.
The thing that gets me is the illness was kinda starting to get spread about last Wednesday.
Two days later I hear about the hospitals being out of masks.
Some doctor was on the tube this morning saying “We normally pay .85 cents per mask and now we’re paying 7.50”
So two days into a somewhat major outbreak and you guys have used up all your masks?
If we all get a headache at the same time, how long before you run out of 17.50 aspirin pills?
The whole thing seems somehow shady to me...
Like there is something happening way, way bigger than a few people with the flu...
Now, here come the Dems ‘ myrmadons to trash this notion Obama erred
They dropped the ball on N95 masks, a simple thing.
What else are they inadequate in doing? Everything else? Likely.
Performing cunning feats of linguistics on behalf of Hillary Clinton.
My first thought also ! Could it be that Fauci is inept and all this bluster is too cover his incompetence?
Or, it’s on the bureaucrats who failed to advise Pres. Trump about the need to replenish the stockpile. I think it’s fair to guess that these are the same bureaucrats that earlier advised Obama that such stockpiles are not required.
No President can be expected to micro-manage the work of all 2,750,000 employees of the federal government. It is the bureaucracy’s job to inform and advise the President — and then to implement his directions. Trump took decisive actions, the moment the facts were finally revealed to him.
No doubt, you’ve just created the next Dem talking point — but, it is completely bogus.
And that was with the whole country united AND using nukes.
Go drink Panda Seed straight from the dispenser, troll.
They ran a pandemic exercise and knew they were short. They also had reps at Event 201 in October of 2019 for this exact scenario-and in that scenario-segment 1- it discusses N95 shortages and that this will be a major problem. I saw that on January 22nd (give or take a day) and went out and bought a couple boxes. If I had the foresight to do that-the brightest people in the world-led by a 4-D chess player should have.
btt
Well that Sandra Fluk flake said she needed lots of condoms. I think she even testified to as much. ......thanks 0buttBoyBammy
the CDC focused more on “social issues” like gun control, transsexual services, etc., and totally dropped the ball when they were called upon to develop C-19 tests and deliver them.
Enter DJT who brought in the private sectror.
He is gracious in not pointing the finger at them every day.
Fauci is not in charge of ordering masks. You guys sound like the press.
Obama changed the mission for CDC to focus on ... gun control & social justice reforms.
You guys want Fauci, don’t ya?
The NIH has nothing to do with any of this—except to be the repository for information.
Trump has been there for three years. Why didn’t he replenish the supply? Surely the managers were telling him it needed to be done.
In a crisis it’s better to fix problems. You guys are focused on looking backwards.
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