The Strategic National Stockpile, the nation’s huge medicine cabinet, explained : NPR

Surges in COVID-19, the flu and other respiratory health problems are forcing the U.S. governing administration to do a thing it typically reserves for emergencies: release hoards of stockpiled Tamiflu to states in dire want of more flu drugs.

The go from the Office of Wellness and Human Solutions on Wednesday arrived by means of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), which enables the federal government to tap its reserves of drugs and other health care supplies when a mass outbreak or other health crisis happens.

It’s real. There is a network of warehouses, every the size of numerous Walmart Supercenters, situated in best-key areas across the country. And though substantially about the stockpile continues to be a top secret, it carries on to engage in a critical function in the COVID pandemic.

This is what we know about the multibillion-dollar stock of vaccines, equipment and other health-related provides made to assistance save life.

What sort of supplies does the SNS stockpile?

In quick, really considerably any clinical materials that could be valuable during a mass outbreak or health and fitness disaster.

The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Reaction (ASPR), a division of HHS, specifics some of the inventory on its website:

There are 1,960 containers of nerve agent antidotes, acknowledged as chempacks, in case of a chemical incident, in a lot more than 1,340 spots, these kinds of as hearth stations and hospitals, throughout the U.S. More than 90% of People live within just an hour of 1 of these places, in accordance to ASPR.

If a organic catastrophe or another disaster impacts the number of hospitals or amounts of professional medical devices accessible, the SNS can deploy “rapidly deployable caches” that arrive with a bed and other healthcare materials. Each of these federal health-related stations can property 50 to 250 clients and arrives with sufficient pharmaceutical supplies to very last for 3 days.

The SNS also suggests it has “hundreds of thousands of masks, gloves, gowns, N95 respirators, encounter shields and other needed supplies” and 16 diverse products of ventilators at the completely ready for those with COVID.

What is the issue of stockpiling so much drugs?

The SNS is intended to be there in case we want it. By acquiring so lots of professional medical provides in its reserves, the nation is intended to help when regional organizations operate out, or when large quantities of professional medical provides are required at a moment’s recognize.

The SNS “serves as the nation’s repository of medications and provides for use if there is a public well being emergency, these kinds of as a terrorist assault, flu outbreak, or purely natural disaster, extreme enough to induce local supplies to run out,” in accordance to the Centers for Disease Manage and Prevention.

When did the U.S. govt start out doing this?

Congress licensed the generation of the SNS, then known as the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile, in 1999, the CDC says.

The federal federal government originally made the SNS to overcome chemical or organic assaults. It has because been used to aid with outbreaks, these types of as the Ebola virus and monkeypox (now known as mpox), but officials began to choose observe of its use when the pandemic led to drastic shortages of essential clinical supplies.

But despite its generation, spending plan cuts, troubles with the international provide chain and producing troubles manufactured the SNS ill-geared up to deal with the pandemic, according to an NPR investigation. Even nine months into the pandemic, the investigation located, the SNS still lacked significant healthcare materials.

Most lately, an Oct 2022 report from the U.S. Authorities Accountability Office environment identified that the SNS failed to supply the state with plenty of means to battle the pandemic.

“The COVID-19 response has also been a catalyst for HHS to re-look at SNS functions, including the part, responsibilities, know-how, and stock wanted relocating forward,” the GAO report mentioned.

What do we know about these warehouses?

Consider a significant warehouse crammed with shelves and shelves of professional medical materials as far as the eye can see.

The locations of the warehouses are a solution. But over the several years, officers have shared some facts about their sizing — and stock.

In 2016, NPR’s Nell Greenfieldboyce was offered a seem at a single of the substantial warehouses. Greg Burel, then the SNS director, informed her that the stockpile inventory was really worth about $7 billion — a sizable improve from the allotted budget of $50 million back again in 1999.