Strategic National Stockpile sits ready – just in case; U.S. repository of drugs, supplies meant for nuke or bioterror strike
A SECRET LOCATION OUTSIDE
This is quite a different kind of warehouse.
It and several others across the country are part of the
There are antibiotics, including the powerful medication Ciprofloxacin, vaccines for smallpox and anthrax, and antivirals for a deadly influenza pandemic.
The need for biodefense has become clearer in the wake of outbreaks of Ebola in
Last year, the federal government added three new chemicals to its list of high-priority threats, including chlorine and blister agents, such as mustard gas, that have been used in deadly chemical weapons attacks in
For nearly two decades, the repository has been almost exclusively managed by the
But some public health officials and members of
"You have spent years planning and exercising and training because you need to know what to do if 100,000 doses of Cipro showed up in your state," said
He and other public health experts also question whether the administration's plan will politicize decision-making about products bought for the stockpile.
The office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response oversees the process by which the government awards contracts to private biotechnology companies that develop and manufacture medicines such as anthrax vaccine.
The
Come October, however, the ASPR will be in charge of choosing the products and then buying them for the stockpile. Proponents say the shift makes sense operationally to place key decisions about the repository under one office.
"I think this is a very good move," said
But critics say it will allow biotech companies to lobby for more of their specialized, and often more expensive, drugs to be included because the federal government is often the only purchaser.
And it's not clear, they caution, whether the new structure will make Americans safer.
The stockpile should contain "the stuff we need for the disasters we know we're going to have - like gloves, syringes, Cipro, penicillin, antibiotics, and influenza vaccines - versus the newest, sexiest version of the anthrax vaccine," said
Officials won't say how many stockpile warehouses exist. But there are at least six, according to a 2016 independent report. All the locations are secret, including this one in an industrial complex off a busy highway. A reporter allowed to tour the facility had to agree not to disclose the location.
In the early hours of a crisis, the warehouse can send an affected city or region a "12-hour push package," a pre-configured cache of 130 containers of antibiotics, syringes and oxygen tubing, enough to fill the belly of a wide-body plane.
"About 50 tons of materiel," said
In the section of the warehouse where biologic drugs such as botulism antitoxins are stored at minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit, workers wear full-body insulated suits. Because of the intense cold they are limited to 20 minutes inside the two enormous freezers, just enough time to drive a forklift in and retrieve a pallet of medicine.
Nationwide, the repository contains enough medical countermeasures to add up to more than 133,995 pallets. Laid flat, they'd cover more than 31 football fields - or 41 acres of land. They contain enough vaccine to protect every person in America from smallpox.
The stockpile program was created in 1999 under President
The repository includes nearly 2,000 caches of nerve agent antidotes, known as Chempacks, that are stored and maintained separately from the warehouses at more than 1,300 locations around the country where they can be accessed quickly.
Over time, the stockpile's mission has expanded to include natural disasters and emerging infectious disease threats. The stockpile deployed antiviral medicine during the 2009-10 swine flu pandemic, and vaccines, portable cots and other supplies during the hurricanes that devastated
As the only source of botulism antitoxin in
The inventory exceeds 1,000 categories of drugs and other items, but
"It's a mission among many pressing missions among the
"Bottom line, it's a good idea to lay the responsibility of the cost of maintaining it on the same people who decide what to put in the stockpile."
The group of federal agencies making decisions about what goes in the repository is led by the ASPR office, headed by former Air Force physician
Kadlec stresses that the impending change has nothing to do with
"The question here is whether we can get better efficiencies," he said in an interview.
At the same time, he said he will be able to advocate most effectively for the program to give it greater visibility, which could lead to more funding.
"Quite frankly, by the back of the envelope, they need more money," he said.
When the stockpile was established,
But since then, the world has changed, with many more unpredictable threats. The ASPR office needs to change to meet these threats.
"The decision to move the stockpile, I think, was just a natural one," Kadlec said.
Yet.
Lawmakers also "strongly urged" HHS Secretary
Kadlec testified
Sen.
"We have yet to see proof this large-scale public health program with complex state, local and federal partnerships would be better served at ASPR than at
Mulvaney defended the plan in his response, saying it will "streamline operational decisions during responses to public health and other emergencies and improve responsiveness." It is unlikely that
At
Credit: By
Caption: Inside one of the warehouses of the Strategic National Stockpile are containers of medical supplies ready for shipment in the event of a large-scale public health incident.
The stockpile deployed portable cots, vaccines and other supplies during the hurricanes that devastated
The
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