Maintaining Vermont’s pandemic stockpile remains a balancing act
WCAX
After the scramble for ventilators, hand sanitizer, and personal protective equipment following the start of the outbreak of COVID in 2020, Vermont health officials say they have learned some lessons, and the state is now better prepared for pandemics of the future.
Masks and gloves were at one time hard to come by early in the pandemic for hospitals and the public. Now, not so much.
“I would say that the need for them or the desire for the general public to kind of be wearing them all the time has dropped off,” said Kyle Maxwell with Lakeside Pharmacy in Burlington. He says they have them readily available for the public.
And for doctors and nurses on the front lines, state officials say we’re prepared. “Being in emergency preparedness as long as I have, you can never tell for sure, but I feel pretty confident that we’re in a really good place,” said Tim Stetson, the strategic national stockpile coordinator at the Vermont Department of Health. “I think one of the things that we have to always consider whenever there’s a stockpile is not only do you want to stockpile but you want to maintain product that is usable.”