Strategic National Stockpile Legislation May Not Address the Real Problem

In the wake of widely reported shortfalls and unexplained re-routing of material in the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) throughout the most critical stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congressional Democrats wasted no time introducing legislation that would mandate better and more transparent management of the resource. That effort, however, may be an example of inventorying trees without recognizing the entire forest is sparsely grown out, according to one expert on the medical supply chain. “There’s a lot of misunderstanding about the stockpile, and people are using the stockpile as a synonym for the medical supply chain, and they are different,” Tara O’Toole, MD, MPH, said. “The problem, in my view, is not with the stockpile. The notion we can stockpile our way out of a global pandemic is ridiculous. The stockpile will never contain everything we need, even for a regional event, let alone an international event.” O’Toole is now an executive vice president at In-Q-Tel, a not-for-profit strategic investment and advisory firm that partners with federal security agencies. She served at various times in her public sector career as under-secretary of science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, as assistant secretary for environment safety and health in the Department of Energy, and as a senior analyst at the Congressional Office of Tec...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Regulatory and Compliance Source Type: news