On January 21, 2021, the U.S. President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. signed the “Executive Order on a Sustainable Public Health Supply Chain” with the purpose the Federal Government to act urgently and effectively to combat the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This order directs immediate actions to secure supplies necessary for responding to the pandemic, so that those supplies are available, and remain available, to the Federal Government and State, local, Tribal, and territorial authorities, as well as to America’s health care workers, health systems, and patients (Section 1. Purpose).
This post intends to provide a summary on the first actions conducted by the President Joe Biden after being sworn in as the 46th President of the US on January 20, 2021, regarding the pandemic Supply Chain Resilience Strategy to design, build and sustain “long-term capability in the United States to manufacture supplies for pandemics and biological threats”.
These priority actions are undertaken within the framework of the security policy to help COVID-19 response team verifying the availability of critical materials, treatments, and supplies needed to combat COVID-19, including personal protective equipment (PPE), and evaluating the resources necessary to effectively produce, provide and distribute tests and vaccines at scale in a timely manner. Also, this strategy considers figuring out the logistics of delivering medical supplies to hospitals, and pharmacies across the country.
According with the Section 4 of the Executive Order, a Supply Chain Resilience Strategy must be provided to the US President within 180 days of the date of this order and shall include:
- mechanisms to respond to emergency supply needs, which should include standards and processes to prioritize requests and delivery and to ensure equitable distribution based on public health criteria.
- an analysis of the role of foreign supply chains in America’s pandemic supply chain, America’s role in the international public health supply chain, and options for strengthening and better coordinating global supply chain systems.
- mechanisms to address points of failure in the supply chains and to ensure necessary redundancies.
- the roles of the Strategic National Stockpile and other Federal and military stockpiles in providing pandemic supplies on an ongoing or emergency basis.
- approaches to assess and maximize the value and efficacy of public/private partnerships and the value of Federal investments in latent manufacturing capacity; and
- an approach to develop a multi-year implementation plan for domestic production of pandemic supplies.
Additionally, the Pricing section on this White House Executive Order demands to take steps to address the pricing of pandemic response supplies, instructing (i) the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall promptly recommend to the President, whether any changes should be made to the authorities delegated to the Secretary by Executive Order 13910 of March 23, 2020, with respect to scarce materials or materials the supply of which would be threatened by accumulation for the purpose of hoarding or price gouging, and (ii) the Secretaries of Defense, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security shall promptly review and provide to the President, recommendations for how to address the pricing of pandemic response supplies, including whether and how to direct the use of reasonable pricing clauses in Federal contracts and investment agreements.
Framed within the Federal Government strategy, President Biden has promised to provide 100 million COVID-19 vaccinations in his first 100 days in office, an expectation that to some health experts it sounds ambitious, but it is within reach. What is clear, is that vaccine distribution needs to increase rapidly well beyond the first hundred days.
The strategic guidelines and actions above reflect the real value and power of supply chain to make a paramount impact in combating and overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, it is time to make ideas a reality at the service of American people welfare.
Finally, I would like to share one of Leonardo da Vinci most profound musings:
“I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.”
Javier Zambrano Cardozo. Msc.
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