[aigel]

IMHO it is not the hospitals' but the government's job to stockpile PPE and equipment for a pandemic. It seems that experts thought it was fairly likely we get another respiratory virus after all the ones we have seen come and go earlier. Did nobody in the government believe them? All we needed to do is buy us some insurance.

We have the biggest military in the world, thousands of nuclear warheads, missile defense systems, intelligence, including cyber warfare etc. to keep us safe. We even stockpile oil in our strategic reserves - why can't we stockpile and rotate through a significant amount of PPE and equipment?

I sure expect a lot of this will change. One advantage the Asian countries had over us was that they had SARS hit them pretty good and they were prepared for the next one. Taiwan being the best example. I hope we will be better prepared and taking it more serious next time. We did miss the chance to test, trace and quarantine while it was still possible.

G