Coronavirus Outbreak Exposes China’s Monopoly on U.S. Drug, Medical Supplies

[WillBrink]

Something I have been aware of for some time and it's similar for the supplement industry:

"The coronavirus outbreak has exposed the United States’ dangerous dependence on China for pharmaceutical and medical supplies, including an estimated 97 percent of all antibiotics and 80 percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients needed to produce drugs in the United States."

Read more on that here:

https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2020/...cal-supplies/?

Now buddy of mine, who married a Chinese women, does biz in China, has kids in China, speaks the language and works in pharma etc (to set up the fact he's not just some 'Murican sitting behind his comp bitching...) had this to say on the matter, and he's right. My comments follow:

"We (America) are fat, stupid and lazy. So we are going to deserve what's
likely to happen here.

Proposal (are you listening you do-nothing Congress full of oxygen thieves?).

I propose a bill that would MANDATE that >75% of all critical drugs (Rx and OTC), medical
devices, surgical implants and biologics MUST be made in the USA and sourced/made from API's
that are also made in the USA. I realize this means costs will go up - I'd rather
the option to pay more and get the medicine than to find out we can't get it at
all or are being held hostage by another country.

FWIW - I have been to the world's largest manufacturer of acetaminophen which is in
China (it's in Anqiu City in Shandong Province - near Qingdao which is a beautiful city)
as JNC Nutrachem has a workshop there - remember them Jeff McCarrell???

This one factory produces over 5,000MT of acetaminophen annually and is essentially
the only major supplier on the planet.

Now replace the word "acetaminophen" with <insert potent, life saving medication here>
and you see how scary this gets fast.

Just remember all you "supplement guys?" Better than 80% of China's herbal extract
facilities are in Hubei Province (Wuhan). Yeah, you're gonna wait a minute now. Hope you stocked up
before the Lunar New Year, fellas.

Wake up, America!" - Bruce K

Now, my comments that are tangential to the above:

As always, follow the $... we have huge national oil reserves, military arms stockpiled. etc, etc, yet allow the US to be complete mercy for critical meds of another country, a communist country that does not like us, but is dependent on us, so we tolerate each other.

Where does the major flu strains start each year? China. Tangential: Where do the carnivores start every time? SARS, Avian, H1N1, Mers, etc.China. The entire place seems to be one viral producing lab and why don't we start addressing that too? Intentional or not, they kill tends of thousands to millions and having been very sick for the last few weeks, I'm f-ing done with China.

Scientists also say the source of the next true Pandemic will be via China. If one was to put their tinfoil hat on, they could go down quite a rabbit hole on this topic, but I don't see it as part of any grand conspiracy, but the fact they will literally eat anything, farming practices, huge numbers of people packed into small areas, high concentration of animals and humans, sanitation or lack there of. etc, makes for a viral fun house of horrors.

I have been thinking about that topic for some time, but having the flu for the last few weeks - first time in decades - it's made it more personal and current for obvious reasons. It's time we address this issue head on. Make no mistake here: It needs to be viewed as a national security issue, otherwise, it will not be addressed. This is a FAR bigger threat to the US than any terrorist group we spend billions playing whack a mole with as an example.

[HardToHandle]

Offered with respect, there is hardly any significant supply chains that don’t end up with major Chinese exposures.

Every couple years federal agencies get worked up this in my industry... And they have yet to come up with a non Chinese solution that doesn’t jack up end user prices and result in the US government pre-selecting the winners. We have a huge pending order that is effectively 1.5x of the entire US annual production - so that means ordering in China where the same order is less than 5% of the annual output is the only viable answer.

Moving away from China doesn’t guarantee success either. There was such a shortage of medical supplies after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico that some elective surgeries were cancelled for months in the continental US. I am no China Lover, but the globalist system is the de facto world today.

[Mozart]

“Coronavirus Outbreak Exposes China’s Monopoly on U.S. Supplies”

Fixed it for you. They pretty much manufacture everything over there. And what they don’t manufacture in full, they make component parts for. The supply disruptions could be worse for the average Joe in the US than the virus itself. I’m worried more about mass layoffs, bankruptcies, foreclosures, liquidity crunch, desperation and skyrocketing property crimes than I am about a virus that kills 2% of infected.

Maybe this is a lesson that needs to be learned during the Fourth Turning: Globalism is a terrible idea, nations must get back to smaller scale and self-sufficiency.

[WillBrink]

“Coronavirus Outbreak Exposes China’s Monopoly on U.S. Supplies”

Fixed it for you. They pretty much manufacture everything over there. And what they don’t manufacture in full, they make component parts for. The supply disruptions could be worse for the average Joe in the US than the virus itself. I’m worried more about mass layoffs, bankruptcies, foreclosures, liquidity crunch, desperation and skyrocketing property crimes than I am about a virus that kills 2% of infected.

Maybe this is a lesson that needs to be learned during the Fourth Turning: Globalism is a terrible idea, nations must get back to smaller scale and self-sufficiency.

Hopefully they're capable of learning it.

[Mozart]

Hopefully they're capable of learning it.

It’s us too. We consent to terrible ideas every day with our dollars. If we starve the companies that outsource, they won’t outsource. Granted it’s easier said than done if you’re talking specifically about medication. Can’t exactly boycott against the maker of a pill you need to be healthy / live.

[SteyrAUG]

It’s us too. We consent to terrible ideas every day with our dollars. If we starve the companies that outsource, they won’t outsource. Granted it’s easier said than done if you’re talking specifically about medication. Can’t exactly boycott against the maker of a pill you need to be healthy / live.

And sometimes it's not just the company, NAFTA was brought to us by congress not some evil corporation.

[Averageman]

The production of hardware fasteners out of China is plagued with fraud markings concerning tensile strength.
These false markings could cost blood and money.

[rickwinger]

Yep. A lot of our meds come from China.

The bitter irony of the debacle is that China apparently bio-nuked their self, and now we are all paying the price in every way imaginable.

At least our country (my perspective, our meaning USA) is now "woke" in a whole new way to how previous generations of elected leadership have put us at risk. Hopefully those who survive this will be clear minded enough to enforce rational business and government and goals and practices.

[Arik]

We're we not getting a whole lot of our meds from Puerto Rico until the hurricane few years ago? I vaguely remember something like a dozen facilities down there producing meds and devices

[yoni]

If the ass wipes in Congress cared about the American people at the very least they would pass a law outlawing the importation of medicine and medical devices from China.

I would love to see a law banning everything from China.