U.S. Pandemic Could Severely Strain Face Mask, Other PPE Supply Pipeline

Bowen reports that in the last year, Prestige Ameritech has gained 5 percent in market share due to private-label arrangements with bigger mask manufacturers that import most of their masks from China, Thailand and Mexico. According to Bowen, about 90 percent of U.S. masks are foreign made. Taking part in the exodus overseas since the late 1990s were many of the largest glove manufacturers, including Kimberly-Clark Health Care, 3M, Medline, Precept, Cardinal Healthcare, and Molnycke, who manufacture mainly in Mexico, China, and Thailand. Companies that still manufacture all or most of their masks in the U.S. are Prestige Ameritech, Alpha Protec, Crosstex and Gerson.

In late 2007, U.S. mask manufacturers met with representatives from the DHHS to discuss the pandemic readiness problem. Bowen says at that time meeting participants were given a copy of a DHHS presentation outlining these shared readiness concerns, something Bowen adds that Prestige Ameritech has been voicing for several years. Bowen says DHHS told him a directive from the Department of Homeland Security prompted the agency to address gaps in the country’s pandemic plan, including the fact that country’s few remaining face mask companies supply just 10 percent of the mask supply. “DHHS has no money allocated to fix the problem,” Bowen says. “So far, DHHS has conducted facility tours and submitted questionnaires to mask sellers, but as yet, they do not appear to have a plan.”

Bowen believes moving manufacturing operations overseas severely hampers the ability to provide the basics of barrier protection in a pandemic. “When DHHS came to visit Prestige Ameritech last November, they echoed what we’ve been saying for nearly three years: ‘In the event of a pandemic, foreign suppliers will divert mask supplies to their own people (under orders from their respective governments), leaving America to fend for itself.’” Bowen adds, “In the event of a pandemic, mask-producing countries will divert mask supplies to their own people, removing up to 90 percent of America’s ongoing supply. Prestige Ameritech and the few remaining American mask producers could not make up the difference. Hospitals would be out of masks in days or weeks at the most. When the masks run out, there would be no protection for America’s HCWs. If, however, America’s healthcare facilities began buying American masks, the mask makers would return to the U.S. and we would, soon, have the necessary infrastructure with which to build stockpiles to protect America during a pandemic."