Why the Strategic National Stockpile isn't meant to solve a crisis like coronavirus

NBC "News" / Comcast ^ | March 28, 2020 | By Sarah Fitzpatrick

[Oldeconomybuyer]

As health care workers around the country labor under shortages of personal protective equipment, all eyes are on the Strategic National Stockpile - the country's largest repository of drugs and medical equipment for use in a public health crisis.

But the U.S. strategic stockpile isn't intended to be the solution to a crisis. It's designed to be used as a stopgap during emergencies. The stockpile has limited resources, government officials and public health experts say, which weren't at full capacity even before the coronavirus was on the horizon.

"The Strategic National Stockpile is not designed to be the sole solution to these problems," said Greg Burel, who directed the stockpile program for more than 12 years until his long-planned retirement in January. He said the shortages of personal protective equipment across the country - and the fact that states already need items from the stockpile - illustrate a systemwide failure in American health care.

The stockpile wasn't at full capacity before the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., in part because it never fully replenished some of the critical supplies used in the 2009 H1N1 pandemic response, Burel said. During that crisis, at least 25 percent of the supply of antiviral drugs designated for influenza were used, as well as a significant amount of personal protective equipment - the very supplies hospitals are in dire need of right now.

HHS said that it has it has maintained supplies of personal protective equipment in the stockpile and that it has made several additional purchases, but "priorities for SNS inventory are balanced against congressionally available funding and direction."

"That stock was never replenished because we never received additional appropriations," Burel said. "We are not in the optimum situation right now."

[JimRed]

Could someone please explain to me the difference between a crisis and an emergency? Thanks.

Focus on solution vs. stopgap instead. A solution ends the problem; a stopgap holds it back a bit while a solution is sought.

[Cboldt]

-- How do we correct that? --

I personally think trying to fix it from a mere citizen's point is a fool's errand.

The cure for unaccountable and dishonest institutions is either to replace the occupant, or to abolish the insitution. No federal institution has ever been abolished, and no corrective measure has ever worked.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. There are more government and loggying jobs than ever, and the pork rate is increasing.

[allwrong57]

all of them, if they thought it was important. Most of them think food comes from the store.