Supply Chains for PPE/Critical Supplies....

[Burgermeister]

Can someone point to any evidence of the necessary material (especially PPE for healthcare workers) is being made in the US? I work in a hospital and was doing my "rounds" the other day and noticed the gloves, masks, booties, etc... we're buying still made overseas. Purell seems to be made here.

There is the public purchases supplies that we buy--anyone (as far as I know) can call up medical supply store and buy these things. What I'm more curious about though is whether there is a relationship like the Mint has with the dollar bill paper supplier. Is there a state-side company making tens of thousands of tons of nitrile gloves that the Government is buying , stockpiling, etc... that are not commercially available?

This type of move isn't really that far off the mark. After hurricanes, Louisiana would often distribute pre-packaged government commodities such as farina (I loved that stuff!!!!) that wasn't available at the Piggly Wiggly.

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This is something Biden and Harris campaigned on... "hardening" or "strengthening" the supply chain of critical goods as I recall.

My fear of course, again as I work in healthcare, is that the same mis-management that we saw under Obama and Trump with our Strategic National Stockpile is happening again. Nobody covers this type of thing...it certainly isn't sexy or super interesting--spoilage of supplies you don't hope to ever use--but in a pinch, it's all that matters. No gloves=slower or no patient care.

Honeywell makes a lot of PPE in the US and they built new capacity over the Covid crap. I'm sure they got some kind of government guarantees to justify the new plants. Even with that I think they had to do some layoffs last year as the panic subsided.

 

[candycorn]

Honeywell makes a lot of PPE in the US and they built new capacity over the Covid crap. I'm sure they got some kind of government guarantees to justify the new plants. Even with that I think they had to do some layoffs last year as the panic subsided.

Hope you're right.

Way back in the day, we used to have something called VMI--Vendor Managed Inventory. The government would buy, just for the ease of math, 10,000 doses of antibiotics from Merck on January 1, 2010. The expiration date of the run for 10,000 doses would be January 1, 2015 or so. By January 1, 2013, Merck would rebate the money (minus fees for MFG or whatever) to the Government who would buy another 10,000 doses. Once they were made, the original run would be released to wholesalers like Morris Dickson, McKesson, etc... and folks like me would buy and distribute the goodies. But there was always 10,000 doses available, owned by the Feds.

Not sure what the structure is now...but that is hopeful.

 

[Mac-7]

Wow, you are incredibly misinformed. When states are overwhelmed, they can request the SNS be activated. The supplies from the SNS are sent to where the State designates. The supplies we received were expired and spoiled during Covid 19. This is Trump's fault.

When I worked public health in Texas, we had a similar episode post Katrina and other disasters where the SNS was sending us stuff. This was during the first term of Obama. It too was spoiled or obsolete. We had to change our P&Ps to be able to use some items.

I'm worried that it may be happening again under Biden.

The states were unprepared on the first day

they should have had enough supplies for at least 3 months

 

[Burgermeister]

Manipulated markets never respond well.

 

[candycorn]

The states were unprepared on the first day

they should have had enough supplies for at least 3 months

3 months stockpiles of PPE?

And you get this bit of hilarious wisdom from where exactly?

 

[sparky]

yes the supply lines are f*cked CC

no, do not look to the gub'mit for solutions

they are , have been, and will continue to be the problem

now,if you're not allergic to the old style PPE, go visit an auto store for gloves

best of luck!

~S~

 

[Mac-7]

3 months stockpiles of PPE?

And you get this bit of hilarious wisdom from where exactly?

Common sense

if you could not figure it out before the wuflu struck it should be obvious now

 

[candycorn]

Common sense

A 90 day supply is worthless when you have 15-20X the number of self presenters and ambulance visits. You do understand that...right?

 

[Mac-7]

A 90 day supply is worthless when you have 15-20X the number of self presenters and ambulance visits. You do understand that...right?

If so then you dont have a 90 day supply, do you?

or do ambulance visits happen only during chinese pandemics?

 

[candycorn]

If so then you dont have a 90 day supply, do you?

or do ambulance visits happen only during chinese pandemics?

I hope you're only acting this retarded.

 

[Mac-7]

I hope you're only acting this retarded.

Piss off