A supply chain crunch that was meant to be temporary now looks like it will last well into next year as the surging delta variant upends factory production in Asia and disrupts shipping, posing more shocks to the world economy.
Nitrile gloves have become extremely difficult to find —and expensive—thanks to Covid-19. Amid accusations of profiteering, everyone from Malaysian rubber magnates to Polish upstarts are cashing in.
With more than 41 million cases of COVID-19 and 1.1 million deaths globally, this pandemic is the worst in more than 100 years, according to Anthony Fauci, MD, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who gave an overview of the pandemic to date.
For the last month, health care workers across the nation have taken to social media to illustrate the shortages by taking selfies wearing home-sewn masks on their faces and trash bags over their scrubs.
Almost everyone knows by now that the U.S. was ill-prepared to combat Covid-19. But few realize that the structural problems in the supply chain that plagued the government’s response haven’t been fixed.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office found that "availability constraints continue with certain PPE" including nitrile gloves.
Gloves aren't as widely used, but are just as essential -- and far harder to manufacture.
Nitrile gloves are critical for frontline medical workers, but experts say the U.S. is poorly positioned to get ahead of a global shortfall of more than 200 billion.
Chief White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci on Sunday warned that "things are going to get worse" and that the U.S. will likely see more "pain and suffering" as the more infectious delta variant drives a surge in COVID-19 cases.
