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"The agency's primary purpose is to coordinate the response to a disaster that has occurred in the United States and that overwhelms the resources of local and state authorities."

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Yes, I agree that the feds should step in at this point (and should have done so long ago). What I'm curious about is the responsibility each state has to, for example, maintain their own stockpile of PPE. What are the resources that have been overwhelmed (and does it vary by state)?

States absolutely have stockpiles, but more for the "there was an earthquake/hurricane/bombing" sort of scenarios where there'd be mutual aid from other states after a few days/weeks and you could readily rebuild the stockpiles in a few weeks by placing some orders with 3M etc.

I don't think any state is going to wind up having had a stockpile sufficient for this sort of prolonged, world-affecting disaster.

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