Mask Demand Still Outruns Supply, But Help May Be Coming

No one really knows how long the COVID-19 pandemic will endure, and it’s highly likely personal protective equipment (PPE) will be a pressing priority for months to come. Ensuring supplies has become a creative endeavor, with new partnerships forming to fill gaps.

The US Department of Defense (DoD), for instance, has signed a $126 million contract with 3M to produce 26 million N95 masks per month, starting in October, according to DoD spokesperson Lt. Col. Mike Andrews. 3M will expedite design, procurement, production facilities, and equipment to increase respirator production by at least 312 million annually within the next 12 months. The company is ramping up: It has already placed orders for raw material and 2 new N95 manufacturing lines, in addition to beginning initial production in Wisconsin and expanding a facility in South Dakota.

The project, funded through the CARES Act, is spearheaded by the Joint Acquisition Task Force, which serves as the DoD’s overarching framework for acquisition support.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) also has a new procurement partner: New Hampshire. The state’s leadership, community business leaders and the VA Secretary’s Center for Strategic Partnerships secured millions of masks for VA workforce nationwide.

“Once again, New Hampshire stands out as a leader in our nation for its collaborative nature benefiting veterans,” said Acting VA Deputy Secretary Pamela Powers. “Governor Sununu and Dean Kamen [a New Hampshire-based inventor] made it possible for VA to purchase 4.5 million masks…. Having these additional resources is truly incredible and on behalf of the department, I offer our sincere gratitude.”

A FedEx cargo plane stocked with 110,000 pounds of PPE landed at Manchester Airport, the third such shipment to arrive in the state. “It is a tribute to our state that we were more aggressive and proactive in our approach to readiness from the get-go,” said Maj. Gen. David J. Mikolaities, the adjutant general of the New Hampshire Army National Guard, which stood ready to support deployment of the new supplies. “We didn’t wait for the need to occur; we secured the supplies so when and if the demand hits we’d be ready with our PPE distribution.”

The need has been getting stronger. More than 1,300 VA employees have tested positive for COVID-19 according to the VA, and 28 are reported to have died. The cases span 114 VA facilities, but with infections affecting less than 1% of the VA health care workforce, the rate is lower at VA than at several large health care systems, including a 4.4% infection rate at University of Washington Medicine and 2.1% of the Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System.

VA nurses and other hospital employees had been warning for weeks that they did not have enough protective gear. Although VA officials denied this, an April 16 memo sent to network directors by the VA's deputy under secretary for health for operations and management indicated the agency was implementing conservation procedures to stretch supplies.

According to The Washington Post, some of those conservation measures were necessary because FEMA had diverted millions of masks and other PPE that VA had ordered away from the department. In a Post interview, Richard Stone, MD, VHA Executive in Charge, acknowledged that he’d been forced to move to “austerity levels” at some hospitals. (At some facilities, VA employees were provided with one surgical mask per week and N95s were reportedly nearly impossible to find.)

Stone said FEMA had directed vendors with equipment on order from VA to instead send it to FEMA to replenish the government’s rapidly depleting emergency stockpile: “I had 5 million masks incoming that disappeared.” At the time, Stone told the Post, the VA’s four-week supply of equipment was almost gone, and the system was burning through about 200,000 masks in a day. The supply system was responding to FEMA, he said. “I couldn’t tell you when my next delivery was coming in.”

According to a recent ProPublica report, the VA has tried other means to acquire PPE, with limited success. The VA contracted to pay $34.5 million for 6 million N95 respirators, a 350% markup on the normal cost of the masks. Unfortunately, even at that price, the contractor received higher bids for the masks and the VA ended up cancelling the contract.

In an effort to reassure veterans and employees, the VA issued a press release insisting that it had stable and “sufficient” supplies on May 13. According to the release, the VA had on hand “the capacity to take in 12,215 critical and non-critical patients,” and its occupancy rates “remain steady at 35-40% nationwide in both acute care and intensive care units (ICUs).” The release also asserted that the “VA’s stock of medical supplies remains robust with millions of N95 masks on hand,” and 1,943 ICU ventilators.

No one really knows how long the COVID-19 pandemic will endure, and it’s highly likely personal protective equipment (PPE) will be a pressing priority for months to come. Ensuring supplies has become a creative endeavor, with new partnerships forming to fill gaps.

The US Department of Defense (DoD), for instance, has signed a $126 million contract with 3M to produce 26 million N95 masks per month, starting in October, according to DoD spokesperson Lt. Col. Mike Andrews. 3M will expedite design, procurement, production facilities, and equipment to increase respirator production by at least 312 million annually within the next 12 months. The company is ramping up: It has already placed orders for raw material and 2 new N95 manufacturing lines, in addition to beginning initial production in Wisconsin and expanding a facility in South Dakota.

The project, funded through the CARES Act, is spearheaded by the Joint Acquisition Task Force, which serves as the DoD’s overarching framework for acquisition support.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) also has a new procurement partner: New Hampshire. The state’s leadership, community business leaders and the VA Secretary’s Center for Strategic Partnerships secured millions of masks for VA workforce nationwide.

“Once again, New Hampshire stands out as a leader in our nation for its collaborative nature benefiting veterans,” said Acting VA Deputy Secretary Pamela Powers. “Governor Sununu and Dean Kamen [a New Hampshire-based inventor] made it possible for VA to purchase 4.5 million masks…. Having these additional resources is truly incredible and on behalf of the department, I offer our sincere gratitude.”

A FedEx cargo plane stocked with 110,000 pounds of PPE landed at Manchester Airport, the third such shipment to arrive in the state. “It is a tribute to our state that we were more aggressive and proactive in our approach to readiness from the get-go,” said Maj. Gen. David J. Mikolaities, the adjutant general of the New Hampshire Army National Guard, which stood ready to support deployment of the new supplies. “We didn’t wait for the need to occur; we secured the supplies so when and if the demand hits we’d be ready with our PPE distribution.”

The need has been getting stronger. More than 1,300 VA employees have tested positive for COVID-19 according to the VA, and 28 are reported to have died. The cases span 114 VA facilities, but with infections affecting less than 1% of the VA health care workforce, the rate is lower at VA than at several large health care systems, including a 4.4% infection rate at University of Washington Medicine and 2.1% of the Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System.

VA nurses and other hospital employees had been warning for weeks that they did not have enough protective gear. Although VA officials denied this, an April 16 memo sent to network directors by the VA's deputy under secretary for health for operations and management indicated the agency was implementing conservation procedures to stretch supplies.

According to The Washington Post, some of those conservation measures were necessary because FEMA had diverted millions of masks and other PPE that VA had ordered away from the department. In a Post interview, Richard Stone, MD, VHA Executive in Charge, acknowledged that he’d been forced to move to “austerity levels” at some hospitals. (At some facilities, VA employees were provided with one surgical mask per week and N95s were reportedly nearly impossible to find.)

Stone said FEMA had directed vendors with equipment on order from VA to instead send it to FEMA to replenish the government’s rapidly depleting emergency stockpile: “I had 5 million masks incoming that disappeared.” At the time, Stone told the Post, the VA’s four-week supply of equipment was almost gone, and the system was burning through about 200,000 masks in a day. The supply system was responding to FEMA, he said. “I couldn’t tell you when my next delivery was coming in.”

According to a recent ProPublica report, the VA has tried other means to acquire PPE, with limited success. The VA contracted to pay $34.5 million for 6 million N95 respirators, a 350% markup on the normal cost of the masks. Unfortunately, even at that price, the contractor received higher bids for the masks and the VA ended up cancelling the contract.

In an effort to reassure veterans and employees, the VA issued a press release insisting that it had stable and “sufficient” supplies on May 13. According to the release, the VA had on hand “the capacity to take in 12,215 critical and non-critical patients,” and its occupancy rates “remain steady at 35-40% nationwide in both acute care and intensive care units (ICUs).” The release also asserted that the “VA’s stock of medical supplies remains robust with millions of N95 masks on hand,” and 1,943 ICU ventilators.

No one really knows how long the COVID-19 pandemic will endure, and it’s highly likely personal protective equipment (PPE) will be a pressing priority for months to come. Ensuring supplies has become a creative endeavor, with new partnerships forming to fill gaps.

The US Department of Defense (DoD), for instance, has signed a $126 million contract with 3M to produce 26 million N95 masks per month, starting in October, according to DoD spokesperson Lt. Col. Mike Andrews. 3M will expedite design, procurement, production facilities, and equipment to increase respirator production by at least 312 million annually within the next 12 months. The company is ramping up: It has already placed orders for raw material and 2 new N95 manufacturing lines, in addition to beginning initial production in Wisconsin and expanding a facility in South Dakota.

The project, funded through the CARES Act, is spearheaded by the Joint Acquisition Task Force, which serves as the DoD’s overarching framework for acquisition support.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) also has a new procurement partner: New Hampshire. The state’s leadership, community business leaders and the VA Secretary’s Center for Strategic Partnerships secured millions of masks for VA workforce nationwide.

“Once again, New Hampshire stands out as a leader in our nation for its collaborative nature benefiting veterans,” said Acting VA Deputy Secretary Pamela Powers. “Governor Sununu and Dean Kamen [a New Hampshire-based inventor] made it possible for VA to purchase 4.5 million masks…. Having these additional resources is truly incredible and on behalf of the department, I offer our sincere gratitude.”

A FedEx cargo plane stocked with 110,000 pounds of PPE landed at Manchester Airport, the third such shipment to arrive in the state. “It is a tribute to our state that we were more aggressive and proactive in our approach to readiness from the get-go,” said Maj. Gen. David J. Mikolaities, the adjutant general of the New Hampshire Army National Guard, which stood ready to support deployment of the new supplies. “We didn’t wait for the need to occur; we secured the supplies so when and if the demand hits we’d be ready with our PPE distribution.”

The need has been getting stronger. More than 1,300 VA employees have tested positive for COVID-19 according to the VA, and 28 are reported to have died. The cases span 114 VA facilities, but with infections affecting less than 1% of the VA health care workforce, the rate is lower at VA than at several large health care systems, including a 4.4% infection rate at University of Washington Medicine and 2.1% of the Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System.

VA nurses and other hospital employees had been warning for weeks that they did not have enough protective gear. Although VA officials denied this, an April 16 memo sent to network directors by the VA's deputy under secretary for health for operations and management indicated the agency was implementing conservation procedures to stretch supplies.

According to The Washington Post, some of those conservation measures were necessary because FEMA had diverted millions of masks and other PPE that VA had ordered away from the department. In a Post interview, Richard Stone, MD, VHA Executive in Charge, acknowledged that he’d been forced to move to “austerity levels” at some hospitals. (At some facilities, VA employees were provided with one surgical mask per week and N95s were reportedly nearly impossible to find.)

Stone said FEMA had directed vendors with equipment on order from VA to instead send it to FEMA to replenish the government’s rapidly depleting emergency stockpile: “I had 5 million masks incoming that disappeared.” At the time, Stone told the Post, the VA’s four-week supply of equipment was almost gone, and the system was burning through about 200,000 masks in a day. The supply system was responding to FEMA, he said. “I couldn’t tell you when my next delivery was coming in.”

According to a recent ProPublica report, the VA has tried other means to acquire PPE, with limited success. The VA contracted to pay $34.5 million for 6 million N95 respirators, a 350% markup on the normal cost of the masks. Unfortunately, even at that price, the contractor received higher bids for the masks and the VA ended up cancelling the contract.

In an effort to reassure veterans and employees, the VA issued a press release insisting that it had stable and “sufficient” supplies on May 13. According to the release, the VA had on hand “the capacity to take in 12,215 critical and non-critical patients,” and its occupancy rates “remain steady at 35-40% nationwide in both acute care and intensive care units (ICUs).” The release also asserted that the “VA’s stock of medical supplies remains robust with millions of N95 masks on hand,” and 1,943 ICU ventilators.