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

Bowen adds, “The head of infection control at a leading GPO thinks that America has a ‘glut’ of face masks and respirators. Today, price is the most important consideration in face masks. As long as this is true, America won’t be ready for a pandemic.” Bowen adds, “Public and governmental pressure will increase to the point that the GPOs will voluntarily institute ‘buy American’ policies for pandemic medical countermeasures in order to be good corporate citizens.”

A sense of apathy about a potential pandemic has settled in five years after SARS and two years after the initial avian influenza scare. Bowen says the lack of pandemic preparedness is a critical concern, but “more importantly, the federal government is saying it.” Bowen adds, “The DHHS recently wrote, ‘Annual production of surgical masks to the U.S. market is about 3.8 billion masks; 90 percent comes from overseas (Asia).’ Additionally, they said: ‘Industrial surge capacity of respiratory protection devices will not be able to meet need and supplies will be short during a pandemic.’ They went on to say that America needs 5.3 billion respirators and 26.9 billion surgical masks in stockpiles and that we only have 0.2 percent of that number in stockpiles today.”

In the DHHS presentation by Brenda Hayden, RN, and Robert C. Huebner, PhD, “Discussion with Respirator Protection Device Manufacturers on Preparedness and Surge Capacity,” given to Prestige Ameritech last November, the agency touches on several important items: there will be a “significant increase” in the need for respiratory protection devices (RPDs) during an influenza pandemic; this need will be all across all sectors including healthcare, public safety, business, government and the public; and industrial surge capacity of RPD will not be able to meet the need and supplies will be short during a pandemic. The DHHS presentation addressed N95 supply issues by reporting that annually, about 900 million N95s per year are available in the U.S. (most are used in non-medical settings). Of those, 25 percent to 30 percent are produced overseas. About 10 percent to 20 percent of annual sales are going to stockpiling, and the SNS represents about 2 percent of the emergency stock needed. In terms of surgical mask stockpiles, the HHS presentation reports that the SNS has a stock representing 0.2 percent of the emergency stock needed.

The answer to PPE shortfalls during a pandemic, it might seem, rests on two action plans: increased stockpiling and increased domestic manufacturing. Within the last several years, then-HHS secretary Mike Leavitt announced that the supplies within the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) would be boosted with the addition of 73 million N95 respirators with another 32 million ordered, and 37.4 million surgical masks with another 14 million ordered.

For those skeptical of the federal and state stockpiling and distribution process, stepping up domestic manufacturing of PPE items is the single best way to be prepared for a pandemic or other emergency event.