Thread by @JewhadiTM

Rated TRUE

Fact check: Did the ObamaBiden administration deplete the federal stockpile of N95 masks? desmoinesregister.com/story/news/hea… via @DMRegister

https://twitter.com/joebiden/status/1266052867200180224

We rate this claim TRUE because it is supported by our research. There is no indication that the Obama administration took significant steps to replenish the Strategic National Stockpile after it was depleted from repeated crises during Obama’s tenure.

Calls for action came from experts at the time concerned for the country’s ability to respond to future serious pandemics. Such recommendations were, for whatever reason, not heeded.

In 2006, NYC, under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, moved forward with an aggressive plan to prepare for a pandemic similar to the coronavirus.

But, in a story first reported by ProPublica, the city never purchased even half of the ventilators that it planned to.

And those it did buy were eventually auctioned off because of the costs of maintaining and storing them, and the company that manufactured the ventilators stopped making the model the city bought.

The city also stocked up on N95 masks, but, the city's health department told ProPublica, they "all expired, and it became cost-prohibitive to replace them in any meaningful quantity."

Senate Democrats Seek Elimination of PPE Delivery Obstacles Created by Obama’s VA

The problems of VA preparedness predate the Trump administration.

prospect.org/api/amp/health…

California once had mobile hospitals and a ventilator stockpile. But it dismantled them latimes.com/california/sto…

A timeline of how years of missteps and budget cuts undermined the Trump administration's preparedness for COVID-19 businessinsider.com/coronavirus-ti…

When the COVID-19 pandemic started a few months ago, the supply had dwindled down to just 12M fitted masks, known as N95 respirators, and 30M surgical masks, a supply deemed to be less than 2% of what the nation would need for full-blown pandemic.

The tale of how such a critical supply lapsed, leading the Trump administration to scramble for 500 million new masks in the midst of pandemic, is one of government neglect and competing priorities that began in 2009.

That’s when the Obama administration drew down nearly 97 million of the masks to deal with the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, effectively protecting frontline medical workers from a virus that infected more than 60 million Americans.

But when it was over, the administration decided not to fully restock the respirators, choosing to spend its $600 million annual budget for the stockpile on other priorities such as key drugs and vaccines to deal with smallpox, anthrax and the like, experts said.

There is “no answer why supplies were not replenished because the N95 masks are invaluable tools for preparedness and it was important that they be restocked,” said Charles Johnson, President of International Safety Equipment Assoc, whose members make supplies for the stockpile.

The Clinton administration first began to examine a national plan to respond to pandemics and create the federal stockpile in 1990s. But the formal National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza was not officially published until 2005 during the George W. Bush administration.

After the H1N1 virus slowed down in 2010, according to Johnson, “it was important to restock.” That did not happen as the national stockpile budget focused on other priorities deemed higher.

Obama/Biden administration sought to cut PPE stockpile, but Biden team points to GOP-led 'budget squeeze' google.com/amp/s/www.foxn…

From Clinton to Bush to Obama/Biden to Trump, 20 years of boom and mostly bust in prepping for pandemics

Over 20 years and 4 admins, the U.S. government has failed to take steps that would have made it easier to respond to a pandemic like the coronavirus. google.com/amp/s/www.nbcn…

Governors were warned of a pandemic years ago, told to stockpile. Why didn’t they do more? abcnews.go.com/Politics/gover…

By law, the federal government is just a back-up system to states, so “the reality is that all levels of government need to be prepared for something like this,” said Daniel Kaniewski, former deputy administer at FEMA.

Titled “Preparing for a Pandemic Influenza: A Primer for Governors and Senior State Officials,” Governors were warned:

“[T]he federal government does not stockpile doctors or nurses,” so “states will be expected to” coordinate care for patients when hospitals are filled, provide food to those who need it, and make “decisions on closings and other efforts to limit public gatherings,”

“Under any realistic scenario, the federal government will have limited resources to devote to a pandemic,” the NGA added. “It is better to plan for self-reliance and utilization of state-based assets for state and local responses.”