If the hospitals aren't overrun yet, how are we already out of personal protective equipment?

[Shell_Seas]

[mucifer]

1. trump and his cronies effed up on so many levels that's how

[milestogo]

2. Because we were ill-prepared for the rise in usage.

[BusyBeingBest]

3. Patients who are showing any symptoms probably have to be

treated as if they have the virus--even if they're in medical facilities for other reasons. Testing isn't keeping up so you don't really know who has it and who doesn't, and you aren't supposed to reuse your protective gear between patients. That will burn through your isolation/PPE stockpiles in a hurry. Edit to add: lots of other reasons to use PPE, it's not just for this virus, it's for MRSA, C. difficile, VRE, and just basic universal precautions.

[Quemado]

4. It's obvious: the for-profit health care system did not want to tie up money in inventory.

The number 1 goal of the for-profit health care system in the US is to maximize profit. It costs money to have an excess supply of PPE for an emergency like this pandemic.

Patient care is not the highest priority.

It's obvious: the for-profit health care system in the US can't deal with a pandemic.

[kckc]

5. one possible explanation

There is also another issue that isn't mentioned much, but the privatization of healthcare really shines a light on it, and that is the idiotic system of "just-in-time" inventory. The best way for any industry to cut costs is obviously in labor, but before it gets to that point, an inventory system is set up that keeps very very little supply of anything on hand- basically, it is manufactured when ordered, and in a crisis, well, you see the result. In healthcare, this could mean PPE, or reagents for the lab to do, you know, actual testing. This keeps costs down and makes stockholders very happy. It makes me very grumpy.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/supply-chains-and-coronavirus/608329/

[Midnight Writer]

6. Exactly. And it is because of "just-in-time" inventory that we need a government program in place

to ensure that we have stockpiles of emergency equipment.

Running government like a business is insanity. It is not a business.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. We Might Not Be Yet

But, at current rate of increase we might. So the alarms have to be sounded now, not when they actually run very low.
We might be critically low now, I don't actually know. But, I'd rather have them be ramping up now than scraping for them later.

[BluesRunTheGame]

8. Bet you most of this stuff comes from overseas.

There’s been heavy demand from other places that are ahead of us in this crisis. Global supplies are low and we don’t make it here.