What the pandemic has taught us about the healthcare supply chain

No sector has been affected quite so much by fissures in the supply chain as healthcare. Reports in September 2021 of dozens of cargo ships anchored off the coast of California, unable to deliver their goods to the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach, again underscored the fragility of supply chains. Indeed it has been an issue throughout the pandemic, but it took a turn for the worse when COVID-19 variants emerged and workers were found to be in short supply at these ports, at least in part out of fear of infection. So the ships continued to bob in the Pacific Ocean, and industries continued to be without vital supplies. No sector has been affected quite so much by fissures in the supply chain as healthcare. And as Cindy Juhas, chief strategy officer for the medical-equipment distributor CME, told the website KSL.com, the problem goes far deeper than delivery.