Why is there still a shortage in the supply of COVID-19 test kits in the U.S.?Īt the start of the outbreak in the U.S., there was a lot of concern about there not being enough test kits. Two colleagues at the University of Michigan recently wrote in an article that even in the best of times, the U.S.
The shutdown in China and the recent lock-down in India may have an impact on the kinds of prescription drugs we see in this country and throughout the world. China is a key supplier of the raw materials for prescription drugs and India has become a major producer of generic drugs. Prescription drugs may be different since the supply chain is more global and relies on China and India. There is no fundamentally broken piece of the food supply chain. In fact, it's not critical for people to be stocking up in their homes. We have the manufacturing, transportation, and storage capacity to deal with consumer packaged goods. But I don't think there is shortage in the food supply chain. This is why we see empty shelves at grocery stores. are facing increased demand for consumer packaged goods such as food, beverages, and cleaning products due to shoppers panic-buying in bulk. Which supply chains have been affected most in the U.S.? It's difficult to predict exactly where disruptions will be felt the most, but specific supply chains have been affected.
For example, transportation routes are at risk of disruption if truck drivers become sick. For other manufacturers, perhaps it will not be labor or raw materials that are in short supply, but the ability to have their product delivered. For example, produce that relies on spring harvest might be in short supply come summer due to labor shortages. In this pandemic, manufacturers that rely on labor-intensive processes that require people to work closely together have been disrupted because of social distancing requirements.
Groups of manufacturing facilities are connected by transportation routes with several storage nodes along the way. Let us think of a supply chain as a supply network. This pandemic has had a major impact on the exchange of goods throughout the world. What is a supply chain and what kinds of disruptions in the global supply chain has the COVID-19 pandemic caused? The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. He joined Johns Hopkins MPH/MBA candidate Samuel Volkin for a brief discussion about how the COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting the global supply chain and how it's affecting people worldwide. Goker Aydin is a professor of operations management at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School whose research focuses on uncertainties in the supply chain. Despite the importance of widespread and comprehensive testing for COVID-19, a joint statement issued two weeks ago by state health authorities and public health laboratories warned of a "widescale shortage of laboratory supplies and reagents" and urged health professionals to limit testing "until sufficient testing supplies and capacity become more widely available." Acute shortages of supplies to safely diagnose and treat patients with COVID-19 has crippled the United States' response to the coronavirus pandemic.