Following the COVID-19 pandemic and a monkeypox outbreak, the Biden administration has worked to boost U.S. medical supplies. 

During his 2020 campaign, Biden promised to develop domestic manufacturing of medical equipment and rebuild the Strategic National Stockpile, which contains emergency medical supplies including vaccines and antibiotics. 

The finalized 2024 Department of Health and Human Services budget included $4.27 billion more funding for the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, which focuses on addressing U.S. public health emergencies by distributing resources and educating health officials on current challenges.

The funding included: 

•  $995 million to the Strategic National Stockpile, which will help secure supplies to deliver emergency medical equipment quickly. 

• A new long-term $400 million investment for pandemic preparedness and biodefense, specifically for "securing the domestic supply chain and developing countermeasures to counter high priority biological threats."

The Biden campaign also promised to increase U.S. medical equipment manufacturing and to address supply chain vulnerabilities. 

Tinglong Dai, Bernard T. Ferrari Professor of Business at Johns Hopkins University, was skeptical about how much the stockpile funding will help medical preparedness.

"You can't get out of a pandemic by stockpiling a lot of stuff — you have to make new stuff," Dai said. "To do that, we need to expand our domestic manufacturing capacity, or at least not lose our existing manufacturing capacity, which is unfortunately what is happening."

In 2023, the U.S. imported $640 million of Chinese personal protective equipment, such as gloves and masks. This year, to decrease reliance on global supply, the Biden administration levied new tariffs on Chinese personal protective equipment in May. Tariffs on syringes and needles will increase from 0% to 50%, and PPE including masks from 0%-7.5% to 25%. 

Dai said the tariffs are "overdue, but helpful," and can help the struggling domestic producers. 

However, because domestic medical device manufacturing has waned, the effect of these tariffs is unclear. American companies have less reason to produce with decreased demand after the pandemic. 

Dai believes the Biden administration should invest in "cutting-edge medical device research" and incentivize domestic production by "guaranteeing federal purchases at fair prices."

Biden announced a new initiative in March for agencies outlined in the Make PPE in America Act, which was part of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. 

The departments of Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services will hold workshops with domestic industry leaders to discuss demand and help them collaborate in production and innovation. 

This is an attempt to alleviate supply chain shortages and production coordination concerns from recent years. It is not yet clear whether this initiative will help American medical device manufacturing. 

"We've seen some incentives, but we just don't see concrete results," Dai said. "This lack of results will haunt us when we desperately need medical supplies when the next public health crisis hits."

The Biden administration has invested heavily in stockpiles and has moved to bolster American manufacturing. But there is still work to be done for experts to feel prepared to face another pandemic. Therefore, we still rate this promise In the Works. 

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