Some of the expired equipment. -CNN
A federal investigation has found that America is largely unprepared for a major pandemic. -CNN. Fears are high that Ebola or some other virus, like a flu virus, could become a major problem soon, but much of the equipment and anti-viral medications are either expired or about to expire. Thousands of respirators and bottles of hand sanitizer have already expired. 81% of all antiviral medications will expire by next year, including 100% of the anti-flu medicine Tamiflu. There are also concerns that the medication hadn't been stored at the right temperature. In an example of skewed priorities hundreds of thousands of coveralls and millions of surgical masks were purchased.
My Comment:
Well, this isn't good news, to say the least. Especially after that new study says that Ebola has a roughly 1-5 chance of reaching America this month. The good news is that some of this stuff is still useful even after expiring. Still, given the current state of the Ebola epidemic I would feel a lot better if they were replacing some or most of this equipment and medicine. And it's not like Ebola is the only disease in town. The flu always has a chance at repeating what it did after World War I. That epidemic killed more people then the war and it could very easily happen again. There's also MERS, a disease that is causing some problems in the Middle East and has a fairly high fatality rate.
No matter the disease though, it is not encouraging that the same old typical Washington red tape, corruption and general incompetence is rearing its ugly head again. This is an especially dangerous game to be playing because a widespread outbreak could completely disable our country. Defense, health care, transportation, food, the economy, it all shuts down if you can't handle a viral outbreak. Just ask Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia... Hopefully congress will do something about this, but I am not holding my breath...
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