Daily Coronavirus Supply Shortage Roundup

Daily Coronavirus Supply Shortage Roundup 

April 13, 2020

Co-President of National Nurses United: “You can’t expect nurses to be miracle workers without the equipment they need to pull off a miracle”

Professor of Pharmaceutical Economics: “What we are living through now are some of the worst-case scenarios of what could occur.”

As coronavirus continues to take American lives, President Trump’s lack of a coordinated federal response to the pandemic has forced states to turn to expensive and unreliable options to combat looming supply shortages – often with serious consequences.

Experts Agree That Broad Testing Is Needed to Get the US Back on Track… But Reliable Test Kits are in Short Supply

Axios: Diagnostic Testing Supply Shortages Threaten Coronavirus Response

• “Experts say that for social distancing measures to be safely lifted, we’ll need to run millions of tests a week — the feasibility of which depends largely on having a resilient supply chain… ‘Across the board, labs do not have predictable, consistent access to the test kits and other supplies necessary for expanded testing capacity,’ said a spokesperson for the American Clinical Laboratory Association.” [Axios, 4/13/20]

ProPublica: He Spent $500,000 to Buy Coronavirus Tests. Health Officials Say They’re Unreliable.

• “The promise of the 20,000 tests would soon become a bitter example of what can go wrong when local governments and private medical firms try to buy supplies on the open market from unknown manufacturers, as policies from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration shift and anxiety increases over a lack of test kits from official sources. As they tried to validate the tests to ensure their accuracy, city health workers in Laredo quickly determined that they were unreliable and unusable… Laredo’s attempt to secure the testing kits highlights what is happening not only in Texas but across the country, as a stubborn shortage of COVID-19 tests has led private sector and government leaders to take risks that they normally would not.”  [ProPublica, 4/10/20]

• Scott Becker, Chief Executive Officer with the Association of Public Health Laboratories. “This is one of those things where, can you imagine … a city government trying to figure this out? This shouldn’t be the process… The concern is that we’re starting to see tests that have not been vetted, where we don’t know their quality, and they are already coming into the country.” [ProPublica, 4/10/20]

The Hill: Officials Warn That New York City Could Run Out Of Coronavirus Test Swabs

• “In a memo to providers, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reiterated that only hospitalized patients with symptoms should be testing for COVID-19 to preserve resources and swabs for patients with severe illness… ‘As the swab supply continues to decline, there is a real possibility hospitals will completely run out,’ the department wrote in the memo. States are also running low on chemicals that are needed to process the tests and personal protective equipment (PPE) used to shield workers from the coronavirus.” [The Hill, 4/13/20]

Washington Post: The Reality Of Coronavirus Testing Continues To Differ From Trump’s Claims

• “The mention of risk to those administering tests raises a more urgent reason for the limit on tests: shortages of supplies. In some places, there have been reports of limited availability of protective equipment. Even at a drive-through test facility, the employees conducting the tests often wear full protective equipment to minimize exposure from possibly infected individuals. The shortages go further than that. New York City has announced that it is running low on test swabs, the long Q-Tip-like devices used to take samples from patients. The Seattle Times reported on similar shortages in that area.” [Washington Post, 4/13/20]

And Trump’s Policies Are Forcing States To Take Extraordinary Steps in Struggle Against Supply Shortages

Politico: States Still Baffled Over How To Get Coronavirus Supplies From Trump

• “The federal government’s haphazard approach to distributing its limited supplies has left states trying everything — filling out lengthy FEMA applications, calling Trump, contacting Pence, sending messages to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and trade adviser Peter Navarro, who are both leading different efforts to find supplies, according to local and states officials in more than half dozen states. They’re even asking mutual friends to call Trump or sending him signals on TV and Twitter. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. ‘This is not something that we should ever be faced with,’ said Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, in an interview. ‘It really is the federal government’s responsibility to build those stockpiles, and distribute those during the time of crisis.’” [Politico, 4/13/20]

Washington Post: As Feds Play ‘Backup,’ States Take Unorthodox Steps To Compete In Cutthroat Global Market For Coronavirus Supplies

• “As the Trump administration assumes what the president has called a ‘backup’ role in distributing supplies to fight the pandemic, state governments are taking extraordinary — and often unorthodox — steps to compete in an increasingly cutthroat global marketplace. The result is a patchwork and often chaotic scramble for goods, pitting states against each other and, often, against other countries or even the U.S. government. ‘We’re doing what everyone else is doing,’ Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said in an interview. ‘You’ve got 50 states and the federal government all chasing the same companies. It’s crazy.’” [Washington Post, 4/11/20]

• “Soaring prices have left states at times to pay up to 10 times the normal prices for certain goods, according to officials from multiple states, eating away at cash reserves and laying the foundation for a fiscal crunch that several governors believe will require federal bailouts… Worried about losing potential deals, state governments have tossed aside long-standing purchasing rules about how to spend taxpayer money, offering funds up front for equipment before it disappears.” [Washington Post, 4/11/20]

CNBC: States Are Bidding Against Each Other And The Federal Government For Important Medical Supplies — And It’s Driving Up Prices.

• “‘Everybody trying to purchase the same things is not an efficient way to do this,’ said Casey Tingle, deputy director of the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. During past emergencies like Hurricane Katrina, the state has worked closely with regional officials for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and relied on the agency to procure supplies. But in an unprecedented situation that impacts not just Louisiana, but the entire country, the roadmap is murkier. ‘There’s a real lack of clarity of whether or not the federal government will be able to push from their level down at least to our state,’ Tingle said.” [CNBC, 4/11/20]

WBUR: Miscommunication, Missing Supplies Strain COVID-19 Coordination Between Mass. And FEMA

• “The federal government’s COVID-19 chief for New England said he could not explain the missing shipments of ventilators and medical masks Massachusetts has experienced, and cited a scarcity of supplies ‘that we’ve never faced before.’ …Capt. W. Russell Webster, the federal coordinating officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s regional office in Boston confirmed that 200 more ventilators are ‘en route’ within the next 48 hours to the state from the national stockpile, for a total of 400 shipped to the state in the last week. But that’s still well below the 1,700 Gov. Charlie Baker had requested — and the 1,000 he had expected to arrive a week ago.” [WBUR, 4/11/20]

Reuters: Outbid And Left Hanging, U.S. States Scramble For Ventilators

• “On the final Thursday in March the Arkansas team in charge of procuring ventilators thought they had scored a coup: a vendor had agreed to sell them 500 of the breathing machines critical to keeping COVID-19 patients alive at $19,000 each. The next day they were told the deal had vanished because a buyer representing New York was offering to purchase 10,000 units, pay cash upfront and double the price, a deal the vendor could not turn down. Reuters could not independently verify that New York bought the ventilators. Either way, for Arkansas, the search for the machines goes on.” [Reuters, 4/10/20]

Des Moines Register: Iowa Issues ‘Shortage Order’ Over Lack Of Protective Medical Equipment

• “Iowa faces a shortage of medical-grade protective equipment so severe that the state government is ordering use beyond typical manufacturer guidelines. The new order allows health care workers to wear expired face masks and gowns, use the same equipment during multiple patient contacts and reuse single-use equipment. It also authorizes health care facilities to more quickly discharge COVID-19 patients once they stabilize.” [Des Moines Register, 4/10/20]

Amidst Lack of PPE, Frontline Workers Risk Their Lives and Turn To Unreliable Supplies

USA Today: Overwhelmed Hospitals, Equipment Shortages: Coronavirus Pandemic Plays Out As State Planners Expected

• “The nation has no coordinated storage system for emergency medical supplies. There is no list of state or local caches, let alone an inventory of what’s in them… A lack of readiness cannot be blamed on ignorance, said Dr. Ashish Jha, faculty director of Harvard’s Global Health Institute. ‘We have known forever that we were going to get hit by a pandemic like this,’ he said. ‘This was the scenario everybody talked about.’” [USA Today, 4/13/20]

CBS: Sick Doctors, Nurses And Not Enough Equipment: NYC Health Care Workers On The Fight Against The Coronavirus

Washington Post: Spikes In Demand From Coronavirus Patients Are Creating Shortages Of Asthma Drugs And Sedatives For Ventilator Patients

• “The shortages show how a lack of basic information is hurting U.S. planning and readiness for a variety of disasters, said Stephen Schondelmeyer, a professor of pharmaceutical economics in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota. ‘What we are living through now are some of the worst-case scenarios of what could occur,’ he said. ‘We should be concerned about the safety and resilience of our drug supply in terms of market concentration, foreign dependence and a lack of transparency of where these drugs are coming from.’” [Washington Post, 4/12/20]

Boston Globe: Medical Workers Share Concerns About Masks Delivered By Patriots Plane

• “At least some and possibly many of the roughly one-million protective masks on the team plane were not the time-tested, industry-standard N95 masks that medical workers wear when treating coronavirus patients…  Rather, they were a Chinese version known as a KN95 mask that some hospitals in Boston and beyond have so far declined to use and remain reluctant about today… State Senator Becca Rausch, a Democrat… said she has been hearing from health care professionals both inside and outside her district who say masks they have received from the shipment don’t fit properly and aren’t safe for use with COVID-19 patients. ‘When I heard this, I was floored,’ she said. ‘The whole Commonwealth — the whole world — sort of breathed a sigh of relief when these masks showed up. And they’re useless for the purpose for which they were brought here.’” [Boston Globe, 4/12/20]

USA Today: ‘Can’t Expect Nurses To Be Miracle Workers’: Mask, Equipment Shortages Push Nurses To Brink Across Nation

• “’We know the current supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) are inadequate, leaving health care workers worried about protecting themselves,’ said Robyn Begley, American Hospital Association senior vice president and chief nursing officer. ‘Increased availability of rapid testing and PPE are both necessary for our health care workers and patients.’” [USA Today, 4/12/20]

Co-President Of National Nurses United Deborah Burge Said The Federal Government Did Not Adequately Prepare When China Disclosed The Emerging Threat In Late December

• “Deborah Burger, co-president of National Nurses United, said the federal government and hospitals did not adequately prepare when China first disclosed the emerging threat in late December. As a result, nurses and other clinicians are put in risky situations without enough protective gear. Burger also urged the Trump administration to use the Defense Production Act to make more N95s and other protective gear as quickly as possible.” [USA Today, 4/12/20]

• “‘You can’t expect nurses to be miracle workers without the equipment they need to pull off a miracle,’ Burger said. ‘Until we actually try to protect our health care workers, it’s going to get to the point where health care workers are going to say, ‘I’m done with this. I’m not going in there.’’” [USA Today, 4/12/20]

Los Angeles Times: Pillowcase Masks And Trash-Bag Gowns. The Bleak, Deadly Reality In California Nursing Homes

• “The masks are long gone, replaced by face covers fashioned from pillowcases. Cleaning supplies are dwindling. And when Maria Cecilia Lim, a licensed vocational nurse at an Orange County nursing home, needs a sterile gown, she reaches for a raincoat bought off the rack by desperate co-workers. ‘This is just one raincoat that we have to keep reusing,’ Lim said last week between shifts at the Healthcare Center of Orange County, a 100-bed nursing facility in Buena Park. ‘A lot of people are using it.’” [Los Angeles Times, 4/12/20]