MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Rethinking Industry's Role in a National Emergency

Photographs of doctors and nurses wearing garbage bags to protect themselves from infection are among the most indelible images of the COVID-19 pandemic. They also testify to the limitations of the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile (SNS). By the end of March 2020, as the first surge of COVID-19 exceeded 20,000 new cases detected per day, it was woefully clear that the United States’ emergency stockpile of essential medical supplies could not meet the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, and other materials urgently needed to battle the pandemic and save lives.

Since then, there has been plenty of finger-pointing regarding the inability of the SNS to live up to its mandate. But none of that acknowledges the reality that, because of the scale and rarity of pandemic-level public health crises, no national reserve can reliably provide the materials needed from inventory alone.

About the Author

ManMohan S. Sodhi (@mohansodhi) is professor of operations and supply chain management at City, University of London, in the Business School (formerly Cass).

Christopher S. Tang (@christangucla) is a distinguished professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and holds the Edward W. Carter Chair in Business Administration at UCLA Anderson School of Management.

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