The COVID-19 pandemic has very clearly shown that most of the world is lagging in outbreak readiness. Even though there have been reports and warnings in many scientific journals about an impending SARS-like disease, very few countries actually took early action.
Not maintaining localized supply chains, and instead concentrating the bulk of the manufacturing in China, caused a domino effect in the collapse of global supply chains for many industries in many countries. This caused undue rationing of essential medical supplies between both patients and healthcare professionals.
Hence, the distribution of critical PPE and medical equipment was not controlled, leading to wastage of these products on people who are not healthcare professionals.
Included in this Intelligence Brief:
- Product and equipment shortages experienced by healthcare providers
- The challenges faced by the manufacturers of these equipment
- How are industries coming together to mitigate these shortages
- What can be done to prevent such shortages in future outbreaks
