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North Carolina tornado could lead to medication shortages after Pfizer plant was hit, expert warns

roguenuke

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So this area is about an hour or less east of me.

North Carolina tornado could lead to medication shortages after Pfizer plant was hit, expert warns

The tornado was reported in Rocky Mount around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.
www.nbcnews.com

Tornado came through the area where this Pfizer facility is and pretty much destroyed it (and many other buildings and infrastructure things) (despite some CTer claims online, this wasn't some wrath of god thing, not unless this god is plain stupid, cruel, and a procrastinator). This facility stores anesthesia and other drugs, including a good percentage of injectable medications.

This is not good. We already still have some medication shortages happening, thanks to the pandemic, this is going to compound the problem.

There were only some minor injuries from this, which is great, but the long term problems from this are still may have a horrible impact without any direct deaths or serious injuries.

Also, here's another article too.

Pfizer facility in North Carolina heavily damaged by tornado packing winds of up to 150 mph

Pfizer said its large complex in Rocky Mount was damaged by a twister that tore through Nash County.
abc11.com
 

I was just reading about that - I think the article I read said something like 50,000 pallets of medicine were scattered every where. Hope everyone down there remains safe and they can get up and running sooner rather than later
 
There’s a lesson to be learned in this. There are industries and warehouses that are critical, and those facilities should be made storm proof. It isn’t rocket science. You CAN actually erect a building that cannot be destroyed in an EF5 category tornado. AND flood proof. AND earthquake proof. The materials and the design engineering exists.

But will the lessons be learned? Probably not as long as money is the biggest factor in construction.
 
If the government will agree to "assist the pharmaceutical companies protect a vital national resource" and if the taxpayers will agree to the increased tax load, then there will be an almost instant boom in constructing tornado, and flood, and earthquake, and tsunami, and blizzard, and meteorite, and insurrection, and theft, and colliewobble, and nuclear attack, and locust plague, proof facilities for the pharmaceutical industry.
 
OR ... the pharmaceutical industry that makes many billion$ in profits, and pays little or no taxes on those profits, can be forced by government regulation to do the right thing at their own expense, instead of the taxpayer's expense.
 
Unless they build a warehouse underground.. Idk if there is a tornado proof building... They are scary...
 
SenorXm/Sirius said:
Unless they build a warehouse underground.. Idk if there is a tornado proof building...
Click to expand...
Of course there are. We design high rise buildings around higher wind loading than that. Low profile warehouses are relatively easy. We can even design roof girder system so if a car or truck is picked up by the wind, and dumped on the roof, it barely penetrates the building envelope. All this and much, much more can be done. It just costs money.

SenorXm/Sirius said:
They are scary...
Click to expand...
Yeah they are. And tragically, a lot of tornado alley is in places with cohesive soils, so far too many of the homes are built SOG - Slab On Grade - and don't even have a basement to hide in if a storm hits. Nothing is scarier than seeing aerial footage of the aftermath of an EF3 or worse, and seeing slab after slab after barren slab, where the entire structure was literally wiped off the face of the earth. But in every case, the difference is just money - because the material science and the design engineering exists to prevent all of it.
 
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Thx for the info...

Here in NY we get 60-70 ever once in a while.. Seldom but it happens... The whole house shakes... I can't imagine 200+ mph winds...
 
MamboDervish said:
OR ... the pharmaceutical industry that makes many billion$ in profits, and pays little or no taxes on those profits, can be forced by government regulation to do the right thing at their own expense, instead of the taxpayer's expense.
Click to expand...
OR ... the boards of directors of the pharmaceutical industry would decide that they would be failing in their fiduciary duty to their shareholders to continue manufacturing in the United States of America due to the intolerable level of totally unjustified interference with the unfettered right of private industry to operate in a free market by imposing harsh and unnecessary restrictions and requirements on the employment of private capital.
 
... after which the federal government can legislate that if they take their production and warehousing off shore, their product can no longer be sold here.

You act as if there are no enforceable building regulations across the country, when in fact they are everywhere - in literally every state in the union. This isn't Turkey, where you can pay someone off and throw up ten residential stories made out of oatmeal instead steel reinforced concrete. All we're talking about is modifying building codes based on location and use. Happens every day.
 
I was once inside a wood frame building that was four stories high and over 100 years old during a typhoon. It sounded like being on a sailing ship and you could watch the whole building flex. When the government was looking to save money by closing buildings that required too much money to upgrade to current earthquake safety standards, that building (although the oldest one surveyed) was actually the cheapest to bring up to current code (all that was required was to actually attach the building to its basement foundation [the basement had been added AFTER the building was over 60 years old. {and dug by hand as part of the "depression relief works" program.
 
MamboDervish said:
... after which the federal government can legislate that if they take their production and warehousing off shore, their product can no longer be sold here.
Click to expand...
Indeed, and the immediate outcry from the citizens who need the medication will be totally ignored (until election time).
 
The strange thing about building construction is that not a lot of it tends to get done where the building codes make it uneconomic to locate a new building.
 
MamboDervish said:
OR ... the pharmaceutical industry that makes many billion$ in profits, and pays little or no taxes on those profits, can be forced by government regulation to do the right thing at their own expense, instead of the taxpayer's expense.
Click to expand...
Lol. Good one!
 
SenorXm/Sirius said:
Unless they build a warehouse underground.. Idk if there is a tornado proof building... They are scary...
Click to expand...
Tornado Proof depends on the EF #. An EF 5 will suck asphalt off the streets. However, EF 5s are a lot rarer than EF 3s, just as Cat 5 Hurricanes are rarer than Cat 3s. It is just a matter of how much you are willing to spend for security.
 
SenorXm/Sirius said:
Thx for the info...

Here in NY we get 60-70 ever once in a while.. Seldom but it happens... The whole house shakes... I can't imagine 200+ mph winds...
Click to expand...
In my neighborhood NW of Albuquerque, 60-70 mph is routine. If you are dumb enough to re-roof with builder grade shingles, you are lucky if your roof lasts 5 years.
 
coyote505 said:
In my neighborhood NW of Albuquerque, 60-70 mph is routine. If you are dumb enough to re-roof with builder grade shingles, you are lucky if your roof lasts 5 years.
Click to expand...
This was winds over up to 150mph.

The National Weather Service said the twister was an EF-3 tornado with winds of up to 150 mph
Click to expand...
 
coyote505 said:
In my neighborhood NW of Albuquerque, 60-70 mph is routine. If you are dumb enough to re-roof with builder grade shingles, you are lucky if your roof lasts 5 years.
Click to expand...
We have a metal roof.. Looks like shingles.. But no... It gets painted every 10-15 years.. Never leaks.. Thank God...
 
SenorXm/Sirius said:
Unless they build a warehouse underground.. Idk if there is a tornado proof building... They are scary...
Click to expand...
I have worked in above ground buildings that were designed to withstand an F5 tornado for an indeterminate time. The front entrance to this place had a gate that would stop a fully loaded semi going 50 miles an hour but the drive leading up to the gate kept the top speed of any vehicle of size to about 20. Man, I need to learn to proof read better on the fly......so many keys....so many fingers....so many possibilities.
 
Ikari said:
Well we needed some more supply chain issues.
Click to expand...
I honestly rechecked to see if my son's medication was made by Pfizer. It's not, but there could still be some indirect issues down the road if shortages in the one they do make result in medicine changes. Also, the anesthesia thing seems like it could cause some major issues when it comes to surgery.

There has been a Lidocaine shortage (or at least was one beginning of last year, when my husband had his surgery).
 
Ikari said:
Well we needed some more supply chain issues.
Click to expand...
Just to make your day even better the price of wheat has been rising between the hot weather and the Ukraine conflict it’s going to get interesting
 
Chillfolks said:
Just to make your day even better the price of wheat has been rising between the hot weather and the Ukraine conflict it’s going to get interesting
Click to expand...
Oh good, I always thought bread was too cheap.
 
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