Federal government rushes to replenish hospital IV fluids after Hurricane Helene disrupts production
Federal government rushes to replenish hospital IV fluids after Hurricane Helene disrupts production
An IV fluid plant in North Carolina was hit by floodwaters and another now sits in the path of Hurricane Milton
FTA:
"The Baxter plant in North Carolina, together with a B. Braun plant in Florida, produces about 85% of the nation's IV fluid supply. The shortage caused by the Baxter plant's temporary closure has forced hospitals to postpone surgeries as a desperate measure to ration supplies for patients in the most critical condition."
How do we have such large points of failure for critical infrastructure?
26You can pick efficiency or redundancy. For some reason efficiency became holy in this country.
18Yep, for some unkno...
It was capitalism .
19Everything America does is to be cheap, billed as efficiency. Really hope the current spicy DoJ is given enough resources to keep cracking skulls.
7
Don't forget that prior to Hurricane Maria in 2017, Puerto Rico produced 43% of the saline used in the US. Not sure whether they rebuilt that infrastructure there or if they shifted production to these places instead... Leaving it all in the path of the same hurricanes for whatever reason.
15I know, right? You'd think for something as CRITICALLY important as IV fluids, production and distribution would be regional.
New England
SouthEast
MidWest
Texas
NorthWest
SoCalSE gets hit with a hurricane? Ship in from New England and Texas.
SoCal gets the big one? Ship in from NW and Texas.
10As much of a pseudo nationalist as I am, itd be a safer bet to setup IV fluid production in Arizona instead. Somewhere like Havasu or one of the other Colorado towns.
4
Meatball Ron
0