Hospitals and pharmacies are required to toss expired drugs, no matter how expensive or vital. Meanwhile the FDA has long known that many remain safe and potent for years longer.
The Strategic National Stockpile stores critical supplies. It fell short when the pandemic first hit. Now, a new effort is being implemented, but it's still not providing what the U.S. needs.
April 1, 2021 6:07 AM By Brandon Lee
President Joe Bidenâs call to spend $400 billion to expand home and community-based care is raising advocatesâ hopes that lawmakers might finally address long-standing challenges the industry, the elderly and people with disabilities face.
Bidenâs multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure proposal unveiled yesterday included the new funds over eight years to boost access to long-term care under Medicaid, the federal governmentâs public health insurance program for the poor and disabled. Many Americans suffer on waiting lists for home care under Medicaid, the main payer for home- and community-based support. Wages remain low for home-care workers in demanding jobs. Biden has signaled he wants to handle these costly issues side-by-side.
Used N95 masks are collected at Boston s Massachusetts General Hospital on April 13. Hospital staff members wrote their names on the masks so each could be returned after being cleaned, a strategy used to alleviate critical shortages of respirator masks. (Blake Nissen/Boston Globe via Getty Images)
The Strategic National Stockpile, which the U.S. has traditionally depended on for emergencies, still lacks critical supplies nine months into one of the worst public health care crises this country has ever seen, an NPR investigation has learned.
A combination of long-standing budget shortfalls, lack of domestic manufacturing, snags in the global supply chain and overwhelming demand has meant that the stockpile is short of the gloves, masks and other supplies needed to weather this winter s surge in COVID-19 cases.
Patient readers, I’m afraid brunch ran late. More soon. –lambert
Bird Song of the Day
A Scottish bird (for Morag).
#COVID19
At reader request, I’ve added this daily chart from 91-DIVOC. The data is the Johns Hopkins CSSE data. Here is the site.
A slight decrease in slope, 15 days after Thanksgiving. I feel I’m engaging in a macabre form of tape-watching, because I don’t think the peak is coming in the next days, or even weeks.
I thought I’d look at some big states (New York, Florida, Texas, California) instead of the Midwest:
Texas and Florida diverge, but California sprints ahead.