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SFGATE: Trump administration changes description of national stockpile

Trump administration changes description of national stockpile
Published on April 04, 2020 at 05:32AM by Aaron Blake, The Washington Post

The Trump administration on Friday changed its description of the Strategic National Stockpile on a government website after journalists noted that it contradicted a claim Jared Kushner had made about the program.

Kushner on Thursday evening offered a novel argument about the national stockpile. He said some states still had stockpiles that they hadn't been employing for the coronavirus outbreak and that localities should go to them first. And then he suggested that the national stockpile wasn't even meant for them.

"And the notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile," Kushner said. "It's not supposed to be states' stockpiles that they then use."

As reporters quickly noted, that didn't match with how the Department of Health and Human Services was describing the program. On its website, it said, "Strategic National Stockpile is the nation's largest supply of life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out." It continued to say, "When state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency."

That language suddenly disappeared from the site Friday morning, as journalist Laura Bassett noted, and was replaced with something de-emphasizing the size of the stockpile and its role in helping states. The new description cast it as a "short-term stopgap."

"The Strategic National Stockpile's role is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies," it now says. "Many states have products stockpiled, as well. The supplies, medicines, and devices for life-saving care contained in the stockpile can be used as a short-term stopgap...

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