US Department of Homeland Security is ill prepared for pandemic, says report

The US Department of Homeland Security has spent millions of dollars on personal protective equipment and antiviral drugs to prepare for pandemic influenza. But a scathing report by the department’s inspector general, John Roth, has said that it failed to assess what supplies it needed and to set up systems to track inventory and replenish out of date equipment and drugs.

“Specifically it [the department] did not have clear and documented methodologies to determine the types and quantities of personal protective equipment and antiviral medical countermeasures it purchased for workforce protection,” said the report.1 “The …