The US has become far too dependent on China for surgical gowns, intravenous drips and prescription drugs. Contamination of these devices and drugs are commonplace and pose a significant danger to the health of Americans. If we ever had a shooting war with China over Taiwan or disputed islands in the South China Sea, dependence on Chinese supplies will pose a deadly threat to American soldiers and civilians.
Recently, three million surgical gowns manufactured in China were recalled because they may not have been sterile. Surgeries are now being canceled in many hospitals across the country. Alan Levine, CEO of Ballad Health in Tennessee, said they recently had to reschedule 200 surgeries. “We still don’t know if whether we’ve hit the worst of it or not,” Levine said.
Cardinal Health admitted that a Chinese contractor supplying its gowns was using factories not registered with the US Food and Drug Administration. The company said these facilities did not “maintain proper environmental conditions.” Problems included gowns exposed to contaminants through open windows, failure to provide proper hand sanitation and operators eating food in production areas.
Cardinal Health announced that it has terminated its relationship with Siyang Holymed in Suqian, China, an FDA-authorized supplier that shifted production of the company’s surgical gowns to non-approved sites without the proper controlled environments. Unable to ensure the sterility of the gowns produced under those conditions, Cardinal Health has recalled or initiated a corrective action on 2.9 million surgical procedure packs containing the affected gowns.
An FDA statement announced on Jan. 16 that “Cardinal Health recommends, and the FDA agrees, that customers should immediately discontinue use of all affected surgical gowns and PreSource procedural packs that include these surgical gowns because the manufacturer cannot provide assurance the products are sterile.”
Cardinal Health issued a press release stating that it severed ties with Siyang Holymed after learning that it had shifted production of the gowns to an unapproved site in December 2019.
China and India now produce 80% of prescription drugs, even though most of these pharmaceutical products were developed and previously manufactured in the US. Annually, Medicare pays for more than $50 billion in prescription drugs that are imported. At the same time, the Food and Drug Administration has admitted that it does not have enough inspectors to check on the quality of drugs imported from China and India. When it has been able to inspect these Asian drug factories, many have failed. For example, the FDA banned the importation from India of antibiotic drugs from Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and all drugs made in India by Ranbaxy, including generic Lipitor. In September 2015, the FDA banned 15 drugs coming out of Zhejiang Hisun, China, because of “systemic data manipulation” in the facility making their pharmaceutical quality highly suspect.
I am proposing the Buy American Medical Supplies Acts (BAMS) to require Medicare, the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration to purchase and use American-made surgical gowns and supplies, wheelchairs, scooters, crutches, walkers and prescription drugs when the federal government pays the tab. In the rare case when domestic sources are not available, Medicare, DOD and the VA will be allowed to buy imports. In all cases, these government agencies will be empowered to negotiate the best deal for the country. Currently, the United States pays more for drugs than every country in the world despite the fact that the US develops and produces many of these pharmaceutical products. This proposal will save taxpayer’s billions of dollar while creating hundreds of thousands of jobs.
President Trump promised American voters that he would create jobs in the United States and negotiate better deals. Let’s start with Medicare, one of the largest government programs that is responsible for a significant portion of our trade deficit with China.
Joel Joseph is a lawyer and chairman of the Made in the USA Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting American-made products. Email joeldjoseph@gmail.com. Phone 310 MADE-USA.
From The Progressive Populist, April 1, 2020
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