[mikemotherwell]

So you think this policy was in place starting with Trump? Or was it with a Bush, but Obama chose NOT to repeal it? Or has it all started with Republican governors very recently?

This partisanship seems crazy to me, especially given that the bureaucratic system seems plain broken. Not broken based on Republican or Democratic ideology, just plain broken.

I'm not American, and it doesn't seem like in my country Australia these supply issues have been as bad, despite almost all of our supply coming from China.

[lazyasciiart]

They haven’t been good. Australian doctors are wearing homemade masks just like Americans. https://www.physiciansweekly.com/were-not-hungry-we/

[Melting_Harps]

> They haven’t been good. Australian doctors are wearing homemade masks just like Americans.

Wow, I had thought that due to political alliances and mutual dependence as well as proximity that Australia would be the first to get supplies from China. I guess this provides further credence that being politically cozy with CCP doesn't benefit you any more than a country who puts trade sanctions in place like the US.

That was a really sobering read, but this highlights the chaos that is currently taking place best:

> But staff in some stretched hospitals in NSW are facing tight restrictions on the use of higher specification N95 face masks and are relying on face shields made from plastic and rubber bands from hardware stores to stay safe.

> “Some are even using scuba gear,” said Andrew Miller, President of the Western Australia state branch of the Australian Medical Association.

> “We have doctors and nurses who have been disciplined for trying to wear a mask at work. It’s a situation full of conflict and confusion.”

The CCP (and by extension the WHO) should have to answer for Crimes against Humanity for trying to cover up COVID19 outbreak which got medical workers killed, and dissapearing citizen journalists who were trying to expose the dire nature of all of this.

I hope People now begin to realize (and support) why what Hong Kong is doing is imperative to not just their own interests, but in curtailing the expansion of this Authoritarian regime from being a dominant power in the World. For most people it's one thing to see it going on elsewhere and dismiss it as other People's problems, but a stark realization comes into focus when you see it's implications have affected not just your safety and livelihood but the whole World as its exhausting the foundations of daily Life.

Its par for the course for the CCP, I highly recommend people watch a documentary on how the CCP has and will continue to censor media and jail those who fail to repeat their narrative that ultimately lead to the World being in disrepute, as all of this could have been avoided:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKbd4EsbgMM

Also, if anyone works in the medical field and needs to get a source on masks, a yellow leaning Hong Kong factory (Yellow Factory) has begun making masks:

https://tinyurl.com/uw4umrd

https://www.facebook.com/yellowfactory2020/posts/12316591596...

[presumably]

Clinton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_National_Stockpile

Republican ideology is abhorrent; one doesn’t have to be part of the Democratic Party to recognize that.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/conservati...

[champagneben]

From your Wikipedia link:

"In 2005 and in preparation for a predictable pandemic influenza, the Bush administration called for the coordination of domestic production and stockpiling of protective personal equipments.[6] In 2006, the US Congress funded the integration of protective equipment to a Strategic National Stockpile: 52 million surgical masks and 104 million N95 air-filtration masks were acquired and added.[6] During the 2009 flu pandemic, 100 million masks were used, but neither the Obama administration nor the Trump administration renewed the strategic stocks."