Despite What Trump Says, His Administration Is Legally Required to Act as an ‘Ordering Clerk’ During Pandemic
THE PRESIDENT:
Sure. But it’s also needed for the federal government. We have a federal stockpile and they have state stockpiles.
And, frankly, they were — many of the states were totally unprepared for this.
So we had to go into the federal stockpile.
But we’re not an ordering clerk. They have to have for themselves.
requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to:
. . . maintain a stockpile or stockpiles of drugs, vaccines and other biological products, medical devices, and other supplies in such numbers, types, and amounts as are determined . . .
to be appropriate and practicable, taking into account other available sources,
to provide for and optimize the emergency health security of the United States,
including the emergency health security of children and other vulnerable populations,
in the event of a bioterrorist attack or other public health emergency.
To accomplish that, the law requires the HHS secretary to work “in consultation with Federal, State, and local officials.”
It gives the HHS secretary or the Homeland Security secretary the power to “deploy” the stockpile pursuant to those mandatory consultations.
To accomplish deployment, the law says the HHS secretary must
“devise plans for effective and timely supply-chain management of the stockpile,
in consultation with . . . heads of other appropriate Federal agencies; State, local, Tribal, and territorial agencies;
and the public and private health care infrastructure.”
Let’s sum that all up:
the law explicitly requires the Trump Administration to engage in
“supply-chain management” to “maintain a stockpile” of “medical devices . . .
appropriate . . . to provide for . . the emergency health security of the United States.”
“Supply chain management” is pretty much the same thing as being a “shipping clerk” and an “ordering clerk,”
https://lawandcrime.com/covid-19-pan...ring-pandemic/
Neither Trash nor JK have the slightest clue that best US govt has to offer, of under Repug govt, has written plans, regs, and laws EXACTLY to plan for and manage a public health emergency