Medical Supply Chains

Depleted national stockpile contributed to COVID PPE shortage

Sources both inside and outside the government raised alarms, pre-COVID, about leaving the nation and its frontline healthcare workers without a PPE safety net. But in the absence of an acute crisis, fully replenishing the stockpile was not a priority.

Fred Leighty, warehouse manager at Oklahoma's Strategic National Stockpile warehouse, walks through the warehouse Tuesday, April 7, 2020, in Oklahoma City. In the warehouse are roughly four million pairs of gloves, 120 thousand gowns, 173 thousand face shields and goggles, 900 thousand surgical and medical masks, 110 thousand respirators and a variety of other personal protections equipment. The actual numbers vary as more supplies arrive and are shipped out daily. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

More Medical Supply Chains Stories

Why was the United States left scrambling for critical medical equipment as the coronavirus swept the country? An investigation into the fragmented global medical supply chain and its deadly consequences. Streaming now.

Medical supply chains are the fragile lifelines between raw materials and manufacturers overseas, and health care workers on COVID-19 front lines in the U.S. As link after link broke, the system fell apart. This catastrophic collapse was one of the country’s most consequential failures to control the virus.