As of Tuesday, 20,704 people have been diagnosed with the coronavirus. While only 212 of those cases have occurred outside of mainland China, the downstream effects of the country’s outbreak could send the globe’s medical supply into chaos 1/ wired.trib.al/XTkbh8h
The problem starts with the world’s reliance on Chinese drug manufacturing. The country is the world’s largest producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients, and much of the US drug and medical supplies are made there 2/ wired.trib.al/XTkbh8h 
Wuhan is not China’s largest site for pharmaceutical manufacturing, but it has become a burgeoning center for bio-pharmaceutical research and development. If just one plant were to shut down there or elsewhere, it could lead to a global drug shortage 3/ wired.trib.al/XTkbh8h
China also produces most of the world’s masks and respirators. While its factories are reportedly churning out 20 million masks a day, if manufacturing slows or the government starts stockpiling, fewer of them may be available to other countries 4/ wired.trib.al/yRLZhAe
A mask shortage could be catastrophic for hospitals. Not only would it occur at the height of flu season, but surgical teams wear masks to protect patients and people with infectious diseases wear masks to protect everyone 5/ wired.trib.al/yRLZhAe
As strained as the supply chain already is, what happens next could make the situation even worse. The potential presence of super-spreaders, people who transmit disease much more readily than others, are a wildcard in the fight to control the outbreak 6/ wired.trib.al/GVuCbSr
The coronavirus has made it resoundingly clear that by condensing so much of the world’s medical manufacturing in one place, the US and other countries have taken a risk of epic proportions 7/ wired.trib.al/XTkbh8h
