Commentary: All the concern about having adequate medical supplies for the COVID-19 pandemic situation should have been addressed a long time ago. It includes regular masks, respirator masks, test kits, gloves, gowns and other protective equipment for health workers and first responders.
We’re now seeing many people wearing masks out in the general public. Most of these medical supplies are made in China or other Southeast Asian countries like Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam.
Why—because they can do it cheaper than the U.S. or European countries. Companies like 3M have most of their factories in China and when they had their outbreak of the COVID-19 virus cases, the government made sure their needs were met first before shipments could go to the U.S. or other countries. That is understandable—and let’s be honest—we would do the same.
Therefore, we should have built up an inventory of these medical supplies in case we had a pandemic--like we do now. Companies don’t want to do that because it costs money. They use just in time (JIT) inventory management. That is fine for making cars or refrigerators—but not for life saving medical supplies.
Since the private sector won’t do this, the Federal Government must—just like we do for military defense purposes. The Trump Administration did not plan for this problem, but neither did earlier Administrations.
It is time we changed our policy.