The metastasizing coronavirus outbreak in the United States has left health care providers and government officials facing a humbling reality as they scramble to procure medical gear key to containing the pandemic: On the global market for medical gear, America is just another buyer on a long list.
After weeks of dragging its feet, the Trump administration has deployed the Defense Production Act to plug gaps in the supply of the masks, gowns, and face shields supposed to protect healthcare workers and keep hospitals up and running. But a review of government pandemic preparedness documents, interviews with emergency medicine specialists, and supply chain experts reveals that the American government is ill-prepared to deploy the Cold War-era law to deliver gear to strapped US hospitals.
“We’re in new territory with the Defense Production act,” says Christopher Kirchhoff, a former Obama administration aide who authored a 2016 report on the lessons learned from the 2014 Ebola epidemic. “It’s never really been used in a broad mobilization to address the kind of situation we are in.”
With federal stockpiles nearly exhausted, public health officials are pleading with the Trump administration to use the Defense Production Act to lead a wartime mobilization of US industry to make the masks desperately needed by healthcare workers. The act allows the government to compel companies to prioritize its own orders, provide financial support for increasing production, and allocate supplies. But these powers are geared toward intervening in global supply chains, and it remains unlikely that domestic US production can be increased with sufficient speed to make a difference.
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