Responding to the risks posed by the combined threats of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, skyrocketing gas prices, and critical supply shortages, the United States federal government is taking unprecedented steps to strengthen the resilience of the supply chain and protect American families. The Biden-Harris administration is focused on improving the agility of federal and state governments to respond to supply shortages by encouraging competition, diversity, and new entrants.
Over the past two and a half years since the first COVID-19 cases emerged, the global supply chain has experienced a myriad of obstacles—and continues to. From manufacturing to ocean shipping to trucking, just about every challenge that could occur, has occurred. Perhaps, however, there are some rays of light starting to emerge for the supply chain.
COVID-19 vaccines, like all vaccines, are extremely sensitive to temperature variations, and require that specific temperature parameters are maintained. To help vaccine providers adhere to the temperature requirements, public health departments strongly recommend the utilization of continuous monitoring digital data loggers. Some public health departments are also recommending real-time vaccine monitoring.
New COVID cases are continuing to wreak havoc in world supply chains. The spread of the COVID Omicron variant has created bottlenecks throughout the world and in particular at many of the world's busiest ports in China. Operations at the world's busiest port of Shanghai are struggling to cope with shipments that have been re-routed from other large Chinese ports such as Shenzhen in the south and Tianjin in the north.
Undoubtedly, COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on the supply chain. COVID had led to ongoing shortages of products, widespread price increases, and continued supply chain unpredictability. Indeed, when the world economy reopened after largely shutting down at the onset of COVID, supply chains couldn’t keep up with the sudden huge surge in product demand. New COVID variants and various health protocols have also weighed heavily on logistic networks.
The COVID pandemic and the just-in-time inventory system have tested the global supply chain and every industry has felt the effects. Early scenes of empty shelves, shopping carts running over with toilet paper and distraught customers point to the panic buying that precipitated many of the COVID-19 product shortages. A video which was particularly telling showed a stressed young mother who was unable to find diapers for her baby. Her phone’s camera panned the ransacked store shelves, as she lamented that the only available diapers were in large multi-pack boxes…which she could not afford.
The recent blockage of the Suez Canal by the Ever Given container ship has shown just how fragile global shipping can be. But, this Suez incident was just one episode in the overall shipping crisis triggered over a year ago by the Coronavirus pandemic. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to shipping now is the shortage of transport boxes (shipping containers). Even when these containers are available, their prices have increased to sky-high levels—from about $1000/each prior to 2020 to up to $10,000 now, according to the DW article: “Coronavirus Pandemic Triggers Shipping Container Crisis.”
It’s been over a year since the COVID-19 pandemic entered our lives and dramatically changed them for the foreseeable future. For many who have continued to work and meet in their usual workplace, day-to-day practices that were once unimaginable have now become generally accepted and are viewed much in the same way as brushing your teeth. Other practices are accepted as necessary but are also thoroughly disliked.