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 ...
Make your own. Pretty soon imho the least at risk will be allowed to go back to work with masks, of course.
Slowly, somberly (after all this is a virus with potential death with which we are at War) we will get back to a new normal
previous generations have faced greater risks.
They should be hung by their thumbs.
Then the person will go to the press and describe the budget meeting where they “needed” 3% more.
You guys act like you’ve never worked through a budget process.
Related to Eagles ownership family?
“Related to Eagles ownership family?”
No idea.
Good find.
It is these sort of professional news publications where actual facts are reported.
They preferred a vendor management system. They keep a standing order for the vendor to deliver on request rather than physically stockpile.
I think both were done but the vendor management was preferred.
Those pigs just flew past my kitchen window!!
It would be interesting to know how many N95 masks were purchased by Kadlec since he's been in office.
Of course he is inept if he was worth anything he would not have been in government for 36 years!!! ANYONE that excels in their profession is in the private sector the LOSERS get lost in the government where they are safe no matter how incompetent they are!!!
Proof of broken and worthless bureaucracy that’s only good at wasting money.
It would be interesting to know how many N95 masks were purchased by Kadlec since he's been in office.
CDC’s Mission Drift (from communicable diseases to smoking, drinking, electronic cigarettes, obesity, diet, suicide, addiction, driving, sports injuries, contraception, economic inequality, domestic violence and gun control).
https://nypost.com/2014/10/24/cdcs-mission-drift/
I don’t think this kind of crap ever gets near Trumps desk, there are people who are there to specifically take care of this crap!!!
Do not take this the wrong way, but blaming Obama after 3 years of Trump is pretty lame.
Fire the incompetent Obamatron who didn’t fill up the stockpile and get on with life.
We need to just start buying masks in quantity. Being able to use industrial ones is going to help a lot...
“Proof of broken and worthless bureaucracy that’s only good at wasting money.”
Another bureaucracy that grew itself and its fiefdom bigger and bigger, inserting itself in our lives more and more, as is typical in DC when we the people do not control them. See post 51.
“I don’t think this kind of crap ever gets near Trumps desk...”
Not if he believed departments were doing their jobs, and heard nothing otherwise. I think he went into DC with that faith. I think his faith in DC got broken, and is now totally shattered from this CDC fiasco.
I suspect we’ll soon see a number of CDC leadership “retirements”...
I say follow the money. I’m positive there’s a budget line somewhere for this that was used for other purposes.
>>>I say follow the money. I’m positive there’s a budget line somewhere for this that was used for other purposes.
Or perhaps Congress dropped the budget line at some time.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!! Not the chosen one making a mistake or flatly ignoring his duty to have some stooge in his posse take care of this. But, then again, don’t worry him with facts.
I’ve been wondering where that little gravely voiced Paisan was on any number of issues. He has been in charge of dealing with outbreaks for over 30 years. Where in the hell has he been.
If he were sent back to Italy being over 60 they would not even allow him to use a ventilator.
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