Among the many things that the coronavirus crisis forces to review is the need to ensure the supply of basic medical supplies in an emergency. The lack of diagnostic tests and protective equipment for health personnel has exacerbated the effects of the pandemic in Spain. To this must now be added the scarcity of certain vital tools for the treatment of patients such as respirators for mechanical ventilation.
Despite the fact that both the Spanish and European health authorities agreed in early February on the need to make joint purchases, the lack of agility and determination has prevented them from arriving on time. A direct consequence of this is the high rate of infection among Spanish healthcare personnel. Yesterday, the number of infected toilets rose to 12,298, 15% of all infected, which is reducing the response capacity of the health system itself.
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Desperate competition at the international level shows that the rule of the save yourself who can not only does not guarantee supplies but prevents them from going where they are most needed. The current shortage reveals the limitations of the market when production capacity is much lower than demand. The race to get supplies gives rise to speculative distortions that increase prices and lead to all kinds of incidents, such as the departure of 58,000 faulty tests purchased by Spain or the 600,000 mask without sufficient protection purchased by the Netherlands. Although the Spanish verification process made it possible to detect the defect of the tests, a vital time was lost in having this crucial test to stop the epidemic.
Especially serious has been the inability demonstrated by the European Union to assist the most affected countries. The Council of Ministers of the EU on February 12 already contemplated the joint purchase of protection material. In its statement, it acknowledged that “responding to serious cross-border threats to health requires coordinated intersectoral action at national, EU and international levels”, and that it should be ensured that “hospital personnel dealing with patients have adequate protection” . However, until March 25, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, did not announce a joint tender for medical supplies by 25 EU countries.
Far from cooperating, the least affected member countries reacted at the beginning of the crisis with more fear and selfishness than they were high-minded. Germany passed a decree on the cessation of exports of protective medical equipment, which caused a diplomatic incident with Austria and Switzerland. Protectionism is not the best strategy against a virus that does not respect borders or customs.
The difficulty of supplying reveals the need to have strategic reserves of sanitary material and agile mechanisms to reconvert the productive fabric for the manufacture of certain tools, as is now being done in an improvised way. But no country can guarantee on its own that it will be able to cover all contingencies. The different national plans must form part of a European coordination and rapid response structure that guarantees supplies and allows them to be distributed according to need.
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