PPE - Has anything changed?

[SheepDog4Life]

One take away from the past 15 months is that the US has a dependence upon China for critical supplies, health care PPE, and that is a strategic weakness that the Chinese can and will use against us when future viruses come out of China... there will be future pandemics.

Stockpiles are helpful, but IMO, core domestic production is a strategic necessity.

Has anything changed?

 

[actaeon277]

Nothing has changed.

 

[IndyDave1776]

One take away from the past 15 months is that the US has a dependence upon China for critical supplies, health care PPE, and that is a strategic weakness that the Chinese can and will use against us when future viruses come out of China... there will be future pandemics.

Stockpiles are helpful, but IMO, core domestic production is a strategic necessity.

Has anything changed?

There have been changes. Even the Ford Motor Company started producing masks. Even after reading about it, it still seemed weird the first time I actually saw a mask on someone's face with a small but discernable blue oval on it. The question is whether or not this capacity will remain in production or even on standby for a future event.

The other question is whether or not we will come to grips with the minuscule to nonexistent effect of some measures like masks.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Nothing changes. There's no profit margin in changing. Some will keep chanting "free enterprise" then expect the government to pick up the cost of their lack of disaster planning. When the government tries to mandate that companies plan better for critical infrastructure and manufacturing, those companies will cry foul. Just-in-time manufacturing certainly cuts costs, but so does shifting the cost of failure.

 

[BugI02]

Nothing changes. There's no profit margin in changing. Some will keep chanting "free enterprise" then expect the government to pick up the cost of their lack of disaster planning. When the government tries to mandate that companies plan better for critical infrastructure and manufacturing, those companies will cry foul. Just-in-time manufacturing certainly cuts costs, but so does shifting the cost of failure.

I was thinking that .gov could mandate that all hospitals maintain a reasonable (I know, I used that word in the same sentence with .gov) stockpile of such things as masks, gowns, face shields etc. It seemed that more rural locations did not need as much PPE and thus could allow some of their supplies to be sent to hard-hit areas, with .gov replenishing their stockpiles as production ramped up. It would be a huge but distributed stockpile

 

[shibumiseeker]

Sure government could, but then are we fans of government forcing private business? I’m just playing Devil’s advocate here. Seems many like the government forcing other people to do stuff for the common good, but not when it applies to me.

 

[Magyars]

One thing for certain....if you have a stockpile of PPE you won't have to depend on others when it's needed.....
Think NBC... Include disposable isolation gowns...it's a one piece paper overall with some sort of film on the outside....

 

[GIJEW]

Sure government could, but then are we fans of government forcing private business? I’m just playing Devil’s advocate here. Seems many like the government forcing other people to do stuff for the common good, but not when it applies to me.

1).gov could contract the manufacture of PPE etc to maintain some "strategic reserve"
2)whereas china is a fascist, communist (I know that's redundant), adversary, .gov could prohibit doing business with them in areas that would harm national security--including outsourcing production. I'd include allowing the CCP to fund research here, and have access to the info.

 

[BugI02]

Sure government could, but then are we fans of government forcing private business? I’m just playing Devil’s advocate here. Seems many like the government forcing other people to do stuff for the common good, but not when it applies to me.

I haven't considered any hospital to be a private business for more than 20 years

 

[shibumiseeker]

I haven't considered any hospital to be a private business for more than 20 years

Of course not. They have a government mandated monopoly.

 

[Tombs]

Well, Trump was working to bring home manufacturing of pharmaceuticals after covid started flaring up. He was successful to some degree, but biden has probably set fire to all of those plans by now.

 

[Tombs]

Sure government could, but then are we fans of government forcing private business? I’m just playing Devil’s advocate here. Seems many like the government forcing other people to do stuff for the common good, but not when it applies to me.

It depends.

Do they accept government funding and subsidies? If they do, I wouldn't call them a private company anymore.

I've tried to elaborate on this before, but I think there's a category here that needs defined properly that isn't yet. There's a massive grey area between public and private due to massive government funding and legal protections that aren't afforded to a truly private company.

 

[Leo]

I think having domestic manufacturing for PPE is a good thing,

Let's add drugs to that, I spend a lot for medication. A lot of it comes from China and India. There is a place to look up drug recalls, some of it has 10-18 recalls per year, year after year. Some is dirty, some is weak and some has cancer causing poison in it. I don't know if I am getting sicker or if my meds are poisoning me. When you are paying $12/pill, you should be able to trust the quality.

 

[NKBJ]

Well, Trump was working to bring home manufacturing of pharmaceuticals after covid started flaring up. He was successful to some degree, but biden has probably set fire to all of those plans by now.

Another push pin on the map...
Who and what is President Trump?