Update 02/17/2020: From Channel News Asia
- Masks are in short supply and manufacturers cannot keep up.
- In South Africa, Ovidiu Olea was forced to hire armed guards to transport 500,000 masks to the airport.
- The shortages have stretched to the U.S. and Europe in pharmacies and hardware stores
- China will lift daily production from 20 million to 180 million by the end of the month, said the country’s textile commerce association
- Taiwan, another big producer, will increase its own supply to 4 million a day.
- US company 3M has pledged to raise production in the US, Europe and Asia.
- Foxconn, which manufactures Apple’s iPhone, said it would soon produce 2 million masks a day for its Chinese staff.
- Carmaker BYD is also planning to make its own supply.
I talked to a friend of mine, who is an emergency room physician. The current shutdown of factories and limitation of transportation within and outside China has started to affect his emergency room. He said that he has to limit the ordering of intravenous fluids because the supply of sterile tubings are running short.
That is quite significant. The sickest patients need intravenous access and fluids. Many of them have reduced oral intake or appetite, and the best way to make them better is by intravenous fluids.
Patients with vomiting, diarrhea, severe infections, fever, dehydration need aggressive I.V. hydration. Even patients with strokes and heart attacks need I.V. fluid running for medications.
80% of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients are from China
Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients or APIs are the primary ingredients in medicines. China exports 80% of APIs all over the world. The APIs imported are then processed into a form that is sold to the market. Therefore, a drug may be made in the U.S. or India, but the API is still from China.
With the current Covid-19 pandemic, most factories and distribution supplies are either shut down or working under capacity.
Recently, the Gateway Pundit interviewed Rosemary Gibson, author of China Rx: Exposing the Risks of America’s Dependence on China for Medicine, she said,
“Under normal circumstances, without coronavirus, if for some reason we didn’t get exports of medicine from China, within a couple of months our pharmacy shelves would be empty in the United States – in a couple of months.”
China manufactures almost all of the active ingredients of medicines in the United States. This includes antibiotics, antihypertensives, insulin, vitamins, and virtually every generic prescription and over the counter product.
I wrote about China Rx in a previous article, Where Are Your Drugs From? Below is a snippet.
- All medications, including the active ingredients for sale in the U.S., are made in China. The drugs may be assembled and manufactured in the U.S., so it will say “Proudly Made in the U.S.A.,” but the active ingredients are still from China.
- “China was the perfect place to buy active ingredients because of its surfeit of chemist, cheap labor, and virtually nonexistent safety and environmental regulations.” (page 56)
- There not enough F.D.A. inspectors or agents to inspect more than three hundred ports in the U.S. where medications enter.
- Even the U.S. military gets its medications from China. What happens if a war breaks out?
- A quote from a former associate commissioner at the F.D.A., “Do you think your pacemaker, heart valve…or morning vitamin was inspected? Dream on.” (page 60)
Hospital Supplies Are Imported from China
Other than IV tubings, many more disposable hospital equipment are made in China.
- Disposable medical/surgical gowns
- Adult or pediatric nebulizer masks
- Blood collection tubes
- Disposable intravenous infusion sets
- Alcohol swabs
- Disposable medical sterile IV catheters
- Syringes
- Masks and waterproof personal protective equipment
- Gloves and many, many more can be found in Made in China.com
Note that the equipment listed are all needed for taking care of infected patients.
China is Already Short of Medical Supplies
China is already facing shortages such that health care workers have to work a whole 8 – 12-hour shift without eating, drinking, or going to the bathroom so that they don’t have to change their protective equipment. They use adult diapers to answer the call of nature.
A recent article in South China Morning Post, Coronavirus: China’s surgical mask shortage ripples through global supply chain as health crisis continues
- China is the world’s largest producer of medical facial masks, but surging demand amid the coronavirus outbreak has created a severe shortage
- The shortfall has prompted Beijing to adopt quasi-wartime rationing, leading to an increase in imports and pushing some companies to manufacture their own for staff
- Chinese mask makers are currently operating at 76 per cent capacity, which puts daily production at 15.2 million masks based on the industry’s reported capacity to produce 20 million pieces a day, Cong Liang, an NDRC official, said at a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
- Daily demand, however, is estimated to be between 50 and 60 million units during the outbreak, according to Chinese media reports citing mainland mask manufacturers.
- China has also only been able to make 200,000 N95 respirators per day because they require more sophisticated technology and materials to produce.
The U.S. Hospitals Supplies Rely on Just in Time Delivery
I am not aware of any hospital that has a stockpile of supplies that can last for months. To have cost-efficiency supplies are ordered only when the supplies run low.
At present, emergency rooms and hospitals in the U.S. sometimes run short of some critical drugs like diltiazem and normal saline. During the SARS and Ebola crisis, we did not have the hooded coveralls that the health care workers in China use. It would be interesting to know how hospitals are preparing for Covid-19.
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