The recent port strike stirred up a flurry of fears about the prices and availability of certain goods in America.
Fortunately, the strike didn't last long. But it could have been otherwise. And the incident served as a potent reminder of the fragility of global supply chains and the real-world consequences of offshoring our manufacturing.
The COVID saga provided an even more dramatic example of supply chain disruption and our dependence on foreign sources, even for such essentials as baby formula and Personal Protection Equipment (PPE).
The case of PPE deserves further attention. Our dependency on foreign producers for PPE -- underscored by COVID -- poses a threat not just to the average American consumer, but to American national security as a whole.
Heading into COVID, 95% of our surgical procedure masks, 97% of our plastic gloves, and 70% of our N95 respirators were manufactured in China, according to the Yeutter Institute. In other words, we were completely dependent on a foreign source for the front-line defenses against a pandemic.
The situation is not much better today. Although we've dumped $4 billion of taxpayer dollars into domestic production of PPE since COVID, we're still only producing about 1% of what we use on an annual basis.
If imports dried up for whatever reason—war, oil prices, a pandemic—we'd have only enough PPE for approximately 4 days.
Existing stockpiles extend that timeline marginally, but even taking that into account we'd be in a very uncomfortable position where difficult decisions about distribution would have to be made almost instantaneously. And there just wouldn't be enough to go around.
All of this puts our national security at risk, because national security in its most basic form centers around preserving the health and wellbeing of the population.
PPE is literally the first line of defense when it comes to a population's health. It could easily become a tool in some form of biological warfare. Consider: a foreign country producing PPE could weaponize the supply chain by either cutting off America's supply completely or intentionally contaminating it.
Actually, contamination occurs even now, albeit unintentionally.
A recent study found 50% of foreign-made disposable gloves had human fecal indicators, along with strains of bacteria including Bacillus cereus, B. anthracis, and Listeria monocytogenes. American cleanliness, quality, and work environment standards are simply much higher than those found in foreign plants.
Unfortunately, the huge demand generated by COVID drew a lot of producers into the PPE space, many of which failed to hold themselves to standards of excellence. Shoddy and even fraudulent products have worked their way into the market.
We simply cannot tolerate defective or contaminated gear when lives are at stake.
On top of national security, quality, and ethical considerations, we can add the economic benefits of end-to-end domestic PPE production. New American manufacturing endeavors equate to more jobs for Americans.
Reshoring PPE production can shore up the U.S. economy. It reduces the logistics involved in procuring this life-saving equipment and galvanizes our highly-efficient domestic transportation system, cutting costs on storage while putting Americans to work.
The speed of our domestic logistics also improves the end product since the masks, gloves, and other equipment don't suffer the degradation they would otherwise undergo during the months spent in hot, sealed shipping containers.
Mercifully, some key players are entering the domestic PPE production and distribution space. Among them is True Health, a new company selling American-made PPE at competitive prices and with higher quality standards. They aim to provide predictable pricing, scalability, and consistent quality.
They also partner with veterans, offering our nation's heroes the opportunity to become distributors, affording them a way to keep serving and protecting the nation they've dedicated their lives to. When they work with True Health, veterans are able to keep 100% of the profits from their business.
True Health is stepping into the breach and providing a much needed service: end-to-end production of PPE on American soil.
Walker Larson is media contributor and culture writer whose work has appeared in The Epoch Times, and Intellectual Takeout.
