Stockpile's inadequate supplies will leave critical shortages for U.S. hospitals scrambling to respond to the mounting coronavirus pandemic.
A secretive cache of medical supplies to save Americans from deadly disasters for years lacked the funding to prepare for a pandemic as widespread as the coronavirus, former managers of the stockpile told USA TODAY.
The stockpile had just 16,600 of the breathing machines and an estimated 12 million N95 masks at the start of the pandemic – not enough for those two states, much less the rest of the country. Story continuesHealth and Human Services officials didn’t respond to requests for comment late Thursday. “There is never enough money there for everything,” Levy said. “You need to decide what the threat is, what the cost is, what can be negotiated with companies.”
The stockpile’s budget reached a high of $596 million in 2010, then dropped year after year until reaching a low of $477 million in 2013. Much of the funding was restored the following year, but the budget stayed flat at about $575 million through 2018 – the same year it was transferred from the CDC to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. But the repository was never designed to meet every need, Levy and Burel said.
Companies are putting out product as fast as they can and he has not heard of any materials shortages, he said. “I think the crunch they’re under is maintaining a three-shift force while also making sure the workers themselves don’t get coronavirus.”
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