5 takeaways: AP/FRONTLINE investigate medical supply chains

From the very moment the coronavirus pandemic reached America’s shores, the country was unprepared. Health care facilities didn’t have the masks and equipment needed to protect their workers. The Associated Press and “FRONTLINE” launched a seven-month investigation to understand what was behind these critical shortages.

Medical supply chains are the fragile lifelines between raw materials and manufacturers overseas, and health care workers on COVID-19 front lines in the U.S. Their catastrophic collapse was one of the country’s most consequential failures to control the virus.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story is part of an ongoing investigation by The Associated Press, the PBS series “FRONTLINE,” and the Global Reporting Centre that examines the deadly consequences of the fragmented worldwide medical supply chain and includes the film “ America’s Medical Supply Crisis, ” premiering on PBS and online Oct. 6 at 10 p.m. EST/9 p.m. CST.

Full Coverage: Deadly Shortages

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Key takeaways from the AP and “FRONTLINE”/PBS investigation:

—The Trump administration knew in January that the COVID-19 virus spread person-to-person, and that demand for masks, gowns and gloves would help protect health care workers. Yet officials did not immediately stop exports or ramp up production in ways that could have eased impending critical medical supply shortages. But that didn't happen. Instead, U.S. companies continued to export critical materials to Asia, Europe and even Canada, whose governments signed contracts with American manufacturers.

—For more than a decade the U.S. government had clear, in-person and written warnings that there would not be enough medical supplies if a global pandemic hit, and there would be deadly consequences. One reason was that...