Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Despite Repeated Calls To Replenish Supplies, A Shortage Exists Of Specialized Masks To Protect Medical Personnel
The H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009 triggered the largest deployment in U.S. history of the Strategic National Stockpile, the federal government鈥檚 last-resort cache of drugs and medical supplies. The stockpile distributed 85 million N95 respirators 鈥 fitted face masks that block most airborne particles 鈥 along with millions of other masks, gowns and gloves. The gear to protect medical personnel came from multibillion dollar emergency funding authorized by Congress in 2007 and 2009, leading to calls for the government to better prepare for the next outbreak. (Reinhard and Brown, 3/10)
A shortage of specialized masks has prompted federal health officials to loosen their recommendations on the face protection that front line health-care workers should use to prevent infection from the highly contagious disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Instead of recommending that health-care workers use specialized masks known as N95 respirators, which filter out about 95 percent of airborne particles, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted new guidelines Tuesday that said 鈥渢he supply chain of respirators cannot meet demand鈥 and that looser fitting surgical face masks 鈥渁re an acceptable alternative." (Sun, 3/10)
A union representing U.S. airport security screeners is urging the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to supply more effective masks to protect against the spread of the new coronavirus, union leadership told Reuters on Tuesday. The union, the AFGE TSA Council 100, which represents about 45,000 transportation security officers at airports across the United States, sent an email on Tuesday morning to TSA Administrator David Pekoske calling on the agency to provide the masks to workers. The email has not been previously reported. (Hesson, 3/11)
As the coronavirus outbreak expanded across the globe, anxious shoppers turned to Amazon.com Inc. for face masks, hand sanitizer and other products promising to help protect against the virus. The problem: Many didn鈥檛 have federal certifications for the safety standards they were touting, some were counterfeit or deceptively labeled, and others were being sold at many times their usual prices. More than 100 safety masks and respirators on Amazon were counterfeit or had unverifiable protection and certification claims, a Wall Street Journal investigation found. (Berzon and Hernandez, 3/11)
