President Trump insists that the more than $7B stockpile of medical supplies is not there simply to be deployed to states, but also for the federal government to use.
Subsequent administrations have built up the stockpile to respond to a range of medical emergencies the country could face, from a terrorist attack to a natural disaster, like a hurricane or tornado. In addition to drugs and vaccines to treat known pathogens, the stockpile has been expanded under each previous administration to include additional medical supplies and even the ability to set up a 250-bed hospital in a disaster zone.
“For some things it is a stopgap. For some things it is the only place that you can get those sorts of things, like an anthrax or smallpox vaccine,” Lurie said. Under the Obama administration, when a state needed something, like during the H1N1 pandemic, they would put in a formal request to the federal government, which would review it and allocate what was needed to the states to then distribute to their local hospitals.
While some states have received ventilators from the stockpile, New York is still short of the number needed and has continued to look elsewhere, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said last week.
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