Hospitals are stockpiling supplies amid fears a coronavirus-related mask shortage could endanger healthcare providers
"You don't need to run out and get your face mask but you should run out and get your flu vaccine," NYU's Dr. Jennifer Lighter told Business Insider.In the face of the coronavirus outbreak, the US medical community is bracing for a potential shortage in crucial equipment, including protective N95 respirator masks.
Dr. Theresa Madaline, Montefiore Health System's healthcare epidemiologist and the assistant professor of infectious diseases at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, told Business Insider that reports of a dearth of N95 masks are particularly concerning. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention"N95 masks are specialized respirator masks that are meant for specific conditions," Madaline told Business Insider.
"There is a finite supply, meaning the manufacturer can only make so many," Madaline said. "If people grab them faster than they can produce them, that will mean that at some point we will not have enough for our health care workers.
A Medline spokesperson told Business Insider that China's "numerous efforts" to contain the virus were resulting in "some impact on manufacturing operations in that country." "There is a lot of fear about this virus of both in the community, but also a lot of chatter within healthcare that people are buying or in many cases taking large stock of the masks," Madaline said.
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