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LA Times originally reported government seizures of PPE weeks ago. In separate news from a different source (PBS Newshour), some hospitals are reporting protec

by csense 6y ago

LA Times originally reported government seizures of PPE weeks ago. In separate news from a different source (PBS Newshour), some hospitals are reporting protective gear from state and federal stockpiles that is completely unusable: masks 10 years past its expiration date, masks for children, masks that are rotting [1]. My guess: These two stories are related. The government had enough masks / PPE on paper, but never actually checked it was usable. No one intended this to happen, it just sort of fell through the cracks, and all the paperwork said everything was OK. Now that huge amounts of physical masks are actually needed, they can't get by anymore on paperwork that doesn't reflect reality. The stockpile probably has a (not officially acknowledged) main purpose of protecting the essential parts of government if there's an outbreak: soldiers, intelligence, Congress, etc. Since people actually started physically checking the masks in government stockpiles, behind the scenes bureaucrats have been panicking because they suddenly found out there won't be enough PPE to protect the government, and the market's so tight and the supply chain is so stretched that they just can't simply buy it, there's way too much demand. So they've decided they need to rebuild the stockpile. The government's reasoning is probably that what really matters is that the "people who matter" in government have what they need. If civilian doctors get sick, and some of them die, that's (seen by government bureaucrats as) an acceptable price to pay to be sure the government itself is protected. This sounds pretty horrible, but I'm not sure they're completely wrong. For example, what if Russia invades Europe or China lands troops in California next week, the US Army starts to deploy in response, but gets paralyzed by a huge coronavirus outbreak and all available PPE's already been used? Seems to me like this kind of ethical question should go through the public political process. I'm not sure why they aren't simply honest about why they're doing it. Trying to hide it suggests some bad motive. Maybe it's to hide the original screwup of not checking the stockpile properly. Maybe they have OPSEC concerns about not tipping our adversaries off that this would be a great week to start a war, since the US Military's effectiveness is temporarily crippled by lack of masks. Anyone know how to file an FOIA request to try to force the government to tell us what's happening to seized masks? [1] https://youtu.be/A4YZxctxh8w?t=159 https://youtu.be/A4YZxctxh8w?t=159

paulmd 6y ago
> My guess: The government had enough masks / PPE on paper, but never actually checked it was usable. No one intended this to happen, it just sort of fell through the cracks, and all the paperwork said everything was OK. No, Republicans in congress very specifically cut the budgets that were supposed to be used to rotate out expired materials. It wasn't accidental, it's a case of refusing to pay the insurance bill and then acting shocked when you're in a car crash. It also took a big hit from the sequestration, like everything else in the government, but the budget was already underfunded to begin with because DHHS was associated with Obamacare and Republicans wouldn't approve any spending there. They did the best they could with the money they had and focused on drugs instead of things like masks, which have a harder "cut off" for efficacy and were seen as easier to acquire in the heat of a crisis. But masks eventually have an expiration date too, and if you never rotate them they will eventually go bad too. https://www.propublica.org/article/us-emergency-medical-stockpile-funding-unprepared-coronavirus https://www.propublica.org/article/us-emergency-medical-stoc... > After using up the swine flu emergency funds, the Obama administration tried to replenish the stockpile in 2011 by asking Congress to provide $655 million, up from the previous year’s budget of less than $600 million. Responding to swine flu, which the CDC estimated killed more than 12,000 people in the United States over the course of a year, had required the largest deployment in the stockpile’s history, including nearly 20 million pieces of personal protective equipment and more than 85 million N95 masks, according to a 2016 report published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. > “We recognized the need for replenishment of the stockpile and budgeted about a 10% increase,” said Dr. Nicole Lurie, who served as the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services during the Obama administration. “That was rejected by the Republican House.” > Republicans took over the House of Representatives in the 2010 midterms on the Tea Party wave of opposition to the landmark 2010 health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The new House majority was intent on curbing government spending, especially at HHS, which administered Obamacare. ... > “It just was never funded at the level that was needed to purchase new products, to replace expiring products and to invest in what we now know are the really necessary ancillary products,” said Dara Lieberman, director of government relations at the Trust for America’s Health, a nonpartisan public health advocacy and research group.

by csense 6y ago

paulmd 6y ago

> My guess: The government had enough masks / PPE on paper, but never actually checked it was usable. No one intended this to happen, it just sort of fell through the cracks, and all the paperwork said everything was OK. No, Republicans in congress very specifically cut the budgets that were supposed to be used to rotate out expired materials. It wasn't accidental, it's a case of refusing to pay the insurance bill and then acting shocked when you're in a car crash. It also took a big hit from the sequestration, like everything else in the government, but the budget was already underfunded to begin with because DHHS was associated with Obamacare and Republicans wouldn't approve any spending there. They did the best they could with the money they had and focused on drugs instead of things like masks, which have a harder "cut off" for efficacy and were seen as easier to acquire in the heat of a crisis. But masks eventually have an expiration date too, and if you never rotate them they will eventually go bad too. https://www.propublica.org/article/us-emergency-medical-stockpile-funding-unprepared-coronavirus https://www.propublica.org/article/us-emergency-medical-stoc... > After using up the swine flu emergency funds, the Obama administration tried to replenish the stockpile in 2011 by asking Congress to provide $655 million, up from the previous year’s budget of less than $600 million. Responding to swine flu, which the CDC estimated killed more than 12,000 people in the United States over the course of a year, had required the largest deployment in the stockpile’s history, including nearly 20 million pieces of personal protective equipment and more than 85 million N95 masks, according to a 2016 report published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. > “We recognized the need for replenishment of the stockpile and budgeted about a 10% increase,” said Dr. Nicole Lurie, who served as the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services during the Obama administration. “That was rejected by the Republican House.” > Republicans took over the House of Representatives in the 2010 midterms on the Tea Party wave of opposition to the landmark 2010 health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The new House majority was intent on curbing government spending, especially at HHS, which administered Obamacare. ... > “It just was never funded at the level that was needed to purchase new products, to replace expiring products and to invest in what we now know are the really necessary ancillary products,” said Dara Lieberman, director of government relations at the Trust for America’s Health, a nonpartisan public health advocacy and research group.