A Literature Review of the United States of America’s Reliance on Imported Mechanical Ventilators During the Pandemic

Abstract

This paper provides a literature review of United States of America’s reliance on imported mechanical ventilators during the Covid pandemic. The abstracted and cited articles show that the United States was too reliant on imported mechanical ventilators, primarily imported from Asia which led to shortages as the cases of Covid surged at various points during the waves of Covid cases. This supply and demand imbalance was not just an inconvenience such as the toilet paper shortage and other supply chain disruptions of basic commodities; this supply and demand imbalance had life and death impacts for many first responders, health care workers, nurses, doctors, and the general public in the US. There is continued interest in this topic area in Congress as The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic held a hearing in 2024 titled “Examining the White House’s Role in Pandemic Preparedness and Response” to discuss the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy’s (OPPR) role in responding to and preventing future pandemics. This paper presents key graphs to visually display the changes in supply and demand throughout the pandemic. As many health professionals predict the possibility of future pandemics, there is a continued need to have US self-reliance on domestic produced mechanical ventilators. The paper concludes with an assessment that the US still needs to make further changes in federal manufacturing and health care public policy to become less reliant on imported mechanical ventilators for the next pandemic occurrence.