COVID-19 patients in American hospitals has surpassed 100,000 for the first time as supply networks will be attacked by gangsters hijacking supplies, and there will inevitably be the problems of guaranteed purity and authenticity. Distribution will get compromised and regulation will be stressed.
CNN: The United States reported at least 2,658 coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, the highest number of new deaths in a single day since the pandemic began.
The coronavirus pandemic has inspired a great deal of scientific research into developing a COVID-19 vaccine. Developing a vaccine is one thing, but making it widely available is another issue—one that involves thorny questions of ethics, intellectual property rights, global trade and recouping research costs.
— INTERPOL (@INTERPOL_HQ) December 2, 2020
(April 2020)
As COVID-19 has revealed, even some of the wealthiest countries in the world were totally unprepared to deal with a pandemic. One prominent issue has been national shortages of vital medical products and technologies, coupled in many countries with a lack of domestic production capacity. Dependent on global supply chains at a time of unprecedented demand, governments have tried to persuade (or even require) domestic manufacturers to increase production or to begin manufacturing everything from medical ventilators right down to disposable gloves and gowns, with mixed results. At the same time, many producing countries have imposed export restrictions to prevent domestically-manufactured products being sold abroad.
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