I'm sure most of you in the US have been familiar with shortages of items during the pandemic. Truth is, it seems to be still happening even after "opening up" the economy. When I go to the grocery store, I still see things such as cleaning wipes and hand soap being out of stock on the shelves.
A few aisles over, you could see the some other PSAs informing you about other shortages.
One could say that's a minor convenience since soda is not exactly a necessity of life. For the most part, I drink the original flavor during my break at work. So, losing a few exotic flavors is none of my concern. It is worrisome in that the whole supply chain seems more fragile than I thought.
Of course, the coin shortage is something that has also been happening. On one hand, it goes to show how much people use cash for transactions. When the stores and businesses shutdown, they also affected the flow of the coins. It's amazing that my bank still manages to offer quarters to me during this time.
Can you imagine a year 2020 coin becoming something special down the road? It seems far-fetched, but it would be a memento for me.
What about in places such as clinical labs? Well, I had known about the plastic shortages months back. It would appear that if finally caught up with us.
One of the most common media, the 5% sheep blood agar (SBA), is now in short supply in my department. We have managed to compensate by using chocolate agar. The department reserved SBAs for cultures that had to have them.
Unfortunately, improvisation sacrifices quality for "good enough". That isn't good for patient care in the long run. Times like this force managers to reconsider the contracts they have with suppliers. If the suppliers cannot rectify the issue, they would lose business. And that is one of the effects of shutting down the economy.
It would appear our supply chain is rather delicate. Despite new technology and tools to help us run the operations, it's not resilient. Is it possible to create buffer in anticipation of black swan events? Do we need more advancement in technology to mitigate similar effects in the future? Or, is this the result of stretching things too thin for the sake of profits?
As for me, it is somewhat chilling to think that we are but a few steps away from civilization to chaos.
