One of many warehouses the place stockpiled drugs, and medical provides, are saved.
U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Responses
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U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Responses
One of many warehouses the place stockpiled drugs, and medical provides, are saved.
U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Responses
Surges in COVID-19, the flu and different respiratory sicknesses are forcing the U.S. authorities to do one thing it usually reserves for emergencies: launch hoards of stockpiled Tamiflu to states in dire want of extra flu drugs.
The transfer from the Division of Well being and Human Providers on Wednesday got here by way of the Strategic Nationwide Stockpile (SNS), which permits the federal government to faucet its reserves of medication and different medical provides when a mass outbreak or different well being disaster happens.
It is true. There’s a community of warehouses, every the scale of a number of Walmart Supercenters, situated in top-secret areas throughout the nation. And whereas a lot in regards to the stockpile stays a secret, it continues to play an important position within the COVID pandemic.
This is what we all know in regards to the multibillion-dollar stock of vaccines, gear and different medical provides designed to assist save lives.
What sort of provides does the SNS stockpile?
Briefly, just about any medical provides that might be helpful throughout a mass outbreak or well being disaster.
The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), a division of HHS, particulars among the stock on its web site:
There are 1,960 containers of nerve agent antidotes, often called chempacks, in case of a chemical incident, in additional than 1,340 areas, similar to fireplace stations and hospitals, throughout the U.S. Greater than 90% of People reside inside an hour of one in every of these areas, in keeping with ASPR.
If a pure catastrophe or one other disaster impacts the variety of hospitals or quantities of medical gear accessible, the SNS can deploy “quickly deployable caches” that include a mattress and different medical provides. Every of those federal medical stations can home 50 to 250 sufferers and comes with sufficient pharmaceutical provides to final for 3 days.
The SNS additionally says it has “thousands and thousands of masks, gloves, robes, N95 respirators, face shields and different crucial provides” and 16 totally different fashions of ventilators on the prepared for these with COVID.
What’s the level of stockpiling a lot drugs?
The SNS is meant to be there in case we want it. By having so many medical provides in its reserves, the nation is meant to assist when native businesses run out, or when large quantities of medical provides are wanted at a second’s discover.
The SNS “serves because the nation’s repository of medicines and provides to be used if there’s a public well being emergency, similar to a terrorist assault, flu outbreak, or pure catastrophe, extreme sufficient to trigger native provides to expire,” in keeping with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
When did the U.S. authorities begin doing this?
Congress approved the creation of the SNS, then often called the Nationwide Pharmaceutical Stockpile, in 1999, the CDC says.
The federal authorities initially created the SNS to fight chemical or organic assaults. It has since been used to assist with outbreaks, such because the Ebola virus and monkeypox (now referred to as mpox), however officers started to be aware of its use when the pandemic led to drastic shortages of crucial medical provides.
However regardless of its creation, finances cuts, points with the worldwide provide chain and manufacturing issues made the SNS ill-equipped to take care of the pandemic, in keeping with an NPR investigation. Even 9 months into the pandemic, the investigation discovered, the SNS nonetheless lacked crucial medical provides.
Most lately, an October 2022 report from the U.S. Authorities Accountability Workplace discovered that the SNS failed to provide the nation with sufficient assets to battle the pandemic.
“The COVID-19 response has additionally been a catalyst for HHS to re-examine SNS operations, together with the position, tasks, experience, and stock wanted transferring ahead,” the GAO report stated.
What will we find out about these warehouses?
Think about an enormous warehouse stuffed with cabinets and cabinets of medical provides so far as the attention can see.
The areas of the warehouses are a secret. However through the years, officers have shared some details about their dimension — and stock.
In 2016, NPR’s Nell Greenfieldboyce was given a have a look at one of many large warehouses. Greg Burel, then the SNS director, advised her that the stockpile stock was value about $7 billion — a large enhance from the allotted finances of $50 million again in 1999.
