100 signatures reached
To: Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden
Vertical integration of manufacture of PPE in USA
Introduce funding to create factories to make surgical grade masks, goggles, protective clothing needed to protect all front line workers in this pandemic and those which will inevitably follow. Other essential items to be manufactured in this country should include long swabs for testing and the prepared vials in which to store the potentially infected swab. These factories could be set up in areas which have lost employment such as coal worker country to create new jobs. We should not need to buy these goods from other countries because in times of crisis such as now, the market place becomes like the Wild West, lawless. Poor people die.
Why is this important?
The coronavirus is only one in a series of pandemics which have emerged in the 21st century. Our battle against covid 19 has been severely hampered causing over 10,000 deaths by lack of personal protective equipment for our hospital, nursing home and long term care facilities as well as for those in the grocery stores, warehouses, supply chain and delivery systems for food. This includes doctors, nurses, nurses' aides and orderlies, janitorial people, food service workers and warehouse workers, grocery store personal and the delivery systems. These inexpensive items were supplied on an as needed basis from China and other Asian countries. When there was no emergency, the system worked but has collapsed in our time of greatest need. We need to manufacture and control the production in this country. The factories for these jobs could be based in areas where unemployment is high because industries have become obsolete such as coal mining though the whole the fossil fuel industry is heading in this direction. We are hypocrites when we applaud the work of people on the front lines of disease and yet send them to battle without the low tech equipment they need because corporations could make more money by having it made elsewhere. Our military has already done the research on essential supply chain disruption. Our government should act upon it.