Why the U.S. Is Running Out of Medical Supplies

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2020

⏱️ 24 minutes

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Summary

States and cities across the United States are reporting dangerous shortages of the vital medical supplies needed to contain the coronavirus. Why is the world’s biggest economy suffering such a scramble to find lifesaving equipment? Guest: Sarah Kliff, an investigative reporter covering health care for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading: The scarcity of ventilators has become an emergency, forcing doctors to make life-or-death decisions. The collapse of a government effort to produce an emergency stockpile reveals much about the challenges now being faced in fighting the pandemic.This map of the United States shows gaps in the existing health care infrastructure — and which areas may face a shortage of hospital beds as the virus spreads.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From New York Times, I'm Michael Babaro. This is The Daily.
0:10.2	Today, states and cities across the U.S. are reporting dangerous shortages of vital supplies
0:18.6	needed to contain the pandemic. Sarah Cliff on what's behind those shortages.
0:25.6	It's Tuesday, March 31st.
0:35.0	Well, it's Friday. What feels like has been an endless week. I know so many New Yorkers
0:43.6	have really felt this week. It's been very, very difficult.
0:47.2	Last Friday in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio gave a news conference.
0:51.7	And he essentially came out and said that the city is running out of medical supplies.
0:57.0	We're getting through this week. It's tough. We have what we need for next week, but it will
1:02.0	definitely be a very hard week. But after next Sunday, April 5th is when I get very, very worried
1:08.8	about everything we're going to need. The people power we're going to need, the equipment,
1:14.0	the supplies, obviously the ventilators. That they only have about a week left of the things they
1:18.8	really need. But I want to put down that marker right now, and I've put down that marker to the
1:23.3	White House. That that is a decisive moment for the City of New York. We need to make sure that we
1:29.4	can get to that day ready to face the week after that and the week after that as well. And right now,
1:35.9	we're not there. And this is what we're hearing from mayors, from governors, all across the country.
1:47.2	Everybody's looking for ventilators. Everybody's looking for PPE. Everybody's looking for medical staff
1:51.4	and everybody's looking for vets. And so that's what makes this particularly hard.
1:55.8	There aren't enough supplies to treat the coronavirus outbreak. There's not enough ventilators.
2:00.7	We need thousands of ventilators in Michigan. There is not enough N95 masks. We've got nurses
2:06.4	who are wearing the same mask from the minute they show up for their long shift to the end of
2:11.0	that shift. There aren't enough masks. There aren't enough hospital beds. There aren't enough
	...

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