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Joecanada13, Fact check: Did the Obama administration deplete the federal stockpile of N95 masks?

"It was impressive by Trump."

Nothing Trump has done could be rated as positively impressive for the whole American community.

Obamacare gave more Americans health insurance, but i guess most, if not all, of that gain has been lost under Trump.

Matthew Brown
USA TODAY

April 3, 2020

[...]

During the presidency of Barack Obama, the national stockpile was seriously taxed as the administration addressed multiple crises over eight years. About "75 percent of N95 respirators and 25 percent of face masks contained in the CDC's Strategic National Stockpile (~100 million products) were deployed for use in health care settings over the course of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic response," according to a 2017 study .. http://doi.org/10.1089/hs.2016.0129 .. in the journal Health Security.

Again according to NIH, the stockpile's resources were also used during hurricanes Alex, Irene, Isaac and Sandy. Flooding in 2010 in North Dakota also called for stockpile funds to be deployed. The 2014 outbreaks of the ebola virus and botulism, as well as the 2016 outbreak of the zika virus, continued to significantly tax the stockpile with no serious effort from the Obama administration to replenish the fund.

ProPublica reported on April .. https://www.propublica.org/article/us-emergency-medical-stockpile-funding-unprepared-coronavirus .. 3 that congressional budget battles in the early years of the Obama administration contributed to stockpile shortages. But the article notes available funds were used not to replenish masks: "With limited resources, officials in charge of the stockpile tend to focus on buying lifesaving drugs from small biotechnology firms that would, in the absence of a government buyer, have no other market for their products, experts said. Masks and other protective equipment are in normal times widely available and thus may not have been prioritized for purchase, they said."

During the presidency of Donald Trump, analysts have warned the United States is not prepared for a serious pandemic.

'Gross misjudment': Experts say Trump's decision to disband pandemic team hindered coronavirus response
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/03/18/coronavirus-did-president-trumps-decision-disband-global-pandemic-office-hinder-response/5064881002/

“We assess that the United States and the world will remain vulnerable to the next flu pandemic or large scale outbreak of a contagious disease that could lead to massive rates of death and disability, severely affect the world economy, strain international resources, and increase calls on the United States for support,” the 2019 World Threat Assessment .. https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/2019-ATA-SFR---SSCI.pdf .. from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence states.

The Trump administration has not taken significant steps to replenish the masks in the Strategic National Stockpile.

Our rating: True

We rate this claim TRUE because it is supported by our research. There is no indication that the Obama administration took significant steps to replenish the supply of N95 masks in the Strategic National Stockpile after it was depleted from repeated crises. Calls for action came from experts at the time concerned for the country’s ability to respond to future serious pandemics. Such recommendations were, for whatever reason, not heeded.

Our fact-check sources: [links inside]

Department of Health and Human Services, Strategic National Stockpile: History
Government Accountability Office, 2003 Report on Public Health Capacity
Health Security, Personal Protective Equipment Supply Chain: Lessons Learned from Recent Public Health Emergency Responses
Homeland Security Council, 2005 National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza
National Institute of Health, The Strategic National Stockpile: Origin, Policy Foundations, and Federal Context
2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/04/03/fact-check-did-obama-administration-deplete-n-95-mask-stockpile/5114319002/