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President Donald Trump has launched a new initiative to replenish the nation's emergency cache of health care supplies, with a focus on masks, medicines and other equipment made in the United States in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
"Never again will another president inherit empty shelves or expired products," he said, announcing the effort during an appearance at a medical supply distribution center in Allentown, Pennsylvania on Thursday. "America will be fully prepared for any future outbreaks."
The Trump administration faced a rash of requests from states that desperately needed masks, ventilators and other emergency medical supplies as the novel coronavirus swept the country this spring.
But the federal emergency stockpile was woefully unprepared to meet the demand, officials have acknowledged.
"The cupboards were bare, you've heard me say that a lot," Trump said Thursday.
Trump has spent recent weeks blaming the Obama administration for a sorely-depleted Strategic National Stockpile, though the Trump administration didn't work to update its supplies before the pandemic broke out.
In the early days of the pandemic, as the virus spread mostly overseas, Trump downplayed and doubted the severity of the impact that it would have in the United States.
While Trump was en route to Pennsylvania, a whistleblower testified during a House hearing that he tried to warn the Trump administration in January that there would be a critical need for N95 respirator masks for health care providers.
The Strategic National Stockpile spread across several warehouses throughout the country that keep supplies of medicines and vaccines, respirators and other equipment, such as ventilators, that can be deployed during disasters and other emergencies.
During his speech at the Owens & Minor warehouse in Pennsylvania, Trump said there would be a "monumental effort to replenish and rebuild the Strategic National Stockpile."
Three senior administration officials who previewed the president's proposal provided more details about what his plan will entail.
"We're gonna have more range and more depth to the supplies we have," one official said. The officials spoke to Newsweek on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the issue.
It will include efforts to priorities American-made equipment and establish supply lines—"keep production lines warm"—so that materials won't be kept past their shelf life.
"This is about bringing jobs and manufacturing back to America," one official said.
Trump highlighted the issue of ventilators in particular. Covid-19 is a lung disease that frequently requires patients to be put on ventilators. States and the federal government were thrust into a mad-dash effort to secure anticipated demands as the outbreak took hold.
Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to encourage companies to build ventilators to meet the demand.
"We were mobilized," he said Thursday. "What they did was incredible."
While aboard Air Force One, Trump signed an executive order designating Defense Production Act authority to the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation head, Adam Boehler, who Trump credited with playing a pivotal role on ventilators. Trump said the United States now is at a ventilator capacity to begin aiding allies.
"Two months ago you couldn't get a ventilator," Trump said.
Health officials have warned about the potential for a second coronavirus outbreak later this year, but Trump said Thursday that he doesn't expect the country to be pressed for medical equipment as it was during the first wave.
"We're ready to go in case anything happens," he said.
About the writer
Elizabeth Crisp is a Washington Correspondent for Newsweek, covering the White House and Congress.
She previously was the Washington Correspondent for ... Read more