Hospitals still ration medical N95 masks as stockpiles swell

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Former Trump CDC official says despite large stockpiles, “We are forcing our healthcare industry to reuse sanitized N95s or even worse, wear one N95 all day long.”

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The logistical breakdown is rooted in federal failures over the past year to coordinate supply chains and provide hospitals with clear rules about how to manage their medical equipment.

Before the pandemic tore through the U.S., the demand for N95 masks was 1.7 billion per year, with 80% going to industrial uses and 20% into medical, trade groups say. In 2021, demand for N95 masks for medical use is estimated by industry sources to be 5.7 billion. Even so, all but two of those hospital systems are limiting their doctors, nurses and other workers to one mask per day, or even one per week. Some say they are waiting for the supply to grow even more, while others say they never plan to go back to pre-COVID-19 usage.

In March 2020, just six shipping containers arrived in the U.S. with N95s in them, and almost all of those masks were for industrial use, not medical. By September 2020, orders had soared — in one month, almost 3,000 shipping containers of N95s arrived at U.S. ports, almost entirely medical-grade. In Shanghai, Cameron Johnson, a trade consultant at the Tidalwave Solutions recruitment firm and an adjunct business faculty member at New York University, says “the bottom has fallen out of the mask market.”

The Food and Drug Administration was monitoring N95 supply chains, and received $80 million in emergency pandemic funds “to prevent, prepare for and respond to coronavirus.” Of that amount, about $38 million was for efforts related to tracking medical product shortages. In a Dec. 22 email, Howard acknowledged he was still hearing of shortages: “Apparently, there is a significant domestic production capacity going unused for the lack of orders and we have tried to address this supplier/purchaser disconnect.”

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Hospitals are for-profit businesses. Oligarchs buy your representatives, who no longer represent you. We have a representative form of government that serves the 1% very well, but not the 99%. Good luck getting justice in America/universal healthcare/infrastructure improvements.

None of that makes any sense! Stockpiled where? Why? Go get them from the stockpile!

Mind boggling that a year into pandemic hospital healthcare professionals like myself are still re-using and carrying our N-95 masks around in a paper bag for week(s) not just for a day !!

So, one more thing Trump screwed up.

How many times, must We Americans, have to witness more horrible events from the GOP's, to finally take a stand and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!! GOP Party should and MUST DISSOLVE, before anymore innocent lives are perished. GOP will be going down the deep dark abyss and beyond.

I REALLY want to know which hospitals plan on keeping their policy of 1 mask per day so I can do whatever I can to avoid them! That sounds like an admin or crap science thing

When U.S. conservatives blamed China for the global COVID-19 pandemic, Beijing, Democratic Party, MSM went on the offensive, unleashing a massive disinformation campaign to shift blame to America & Trump, labeling anything not inline with CCP as conspiracy theory discrediting it.

some Trump staff must still be in jobs

All day? Some are taking em home in paper bags and wearing em multiple days....

ASlavitt is anything being done about this?

Nation Nurses union needs formed. Time to strike. Higher wages from the bottom up.

😯

In a word 'Bureaucracy'

Can we stop paying attention to “former Trump officials” please?

Do you remember the movie, 'Indecent Proposal'? Do you think Trump is Robert Redford, and all the Republican men are Woody Harrelson? Wouldn't they all eventually offer up their wives to Trump, if he wanted them to? I'm sure Ted Cruz would love to sit there, and watch.

Don't worry Biden has a plan

Prove it.

Because in this country, the sole purpose of our hospitals is to turn a profit.

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