The Trump administration plans to have as many as 300 million N95 masks, 7 million surgical gowns, and millions of doses of critical care drugs ready by the fall as officials rebuild the national strategic stockpile ahead of a possible coronavirus resurgence.
President Trump is due to highlight the role of the stockpile during a visit to a distribution facility in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Thursday.
The issue was a political football during the early phase of the pandemic response, as hospitals complained they had insufficient resources and were being sent medical supplies that had expired while Trump officials said supplies were depleted by the previous administration. “Empty cupboards” was how Trump described it.
In a conference call with reporters, senior administration officials said the stockpile had only 28% of the necessary supplies at the start of the coronavirus outbreak.
“At the start of this pandemic … we had 13 million N95 masks. We have an aspiration to eventually have a billion,” said one, adding that 300 million would be available by the fall.
“For many of the critical care drugs that are necessary for people on ventilators, we had zero. We will have millions of milliliters of those to take care of any type of surge we anticipate in the fall or beyond.”
The officials accused the Obama administration of failing to restock after the H1N1 influenza outbreak of 2009. However, a recent ProPublica investigation concluded that funding for protective equipment was blocked by a Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
The new plan was unveiled as Dr. Rick Bright, a whistleblower who said he was removed from his post for raising concerns about COVID-19 preparedness, warned in a congressional hearing that the United States faced “the darkest winter” if it did not step up its response.
“What we do must be done carefully — with guidance from the best scientific minds. Our window of opportunity is closing. If we fail to improve our response now, based on science, I fear the pandemic will get worse and be prolonged,” he said.
The new policies are designed to ensure that supplies are cycled in and out of the stockpile so that equipment expiration dates are not exceeded, said the officials. And the Department of Health and Human Services will enter into contracts with manufacturers to keep domestic production lines running, bringing jobs back to America while ensuring the system is ready.
“What we are doing is creating a much more robust, much more capable, and much less vulnerable strategic national stockpile,” said a second official.
The result, said a third official, would be a demonstration of “America First,” supplying a critical care need while also helping move supply chains home.
“This is about making sure that America is prepared for whatever comes in the future,” he said. “This is about bringing jobs and manufacturing back to America. This is about a much more efficient manufacturing and stockpile process so that, going forward, America is able to respond even faster than we did this time.”
