The COVID-19 Lesson For Funeral Directors: BE PREPARED! by Timothy Collison, CFSP The Dodge Company W hen the world began tipping upside down in February 2020, funeral service suppliers such as Dodge had previously experienced situations which bore a resemblance to what was eventually coming our way. During the period of 2002-2004, many of you will remember the SARS outbreak, primarily in Asia with North American cases largely being in Canada. The impact of SARS in the U.S. was seen primarily in a shortage of N95 masks and latex gloves. With a total of 27 deaths in the U.S. being attributed to SARS, the clamor for these PPEs quickly quieted down. In 2014, an outbreak of Ebola was reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), and four confirmed cases were found in the U.S. A total of 11 cases in the U.S. were reported by the end of the outbreak. Again, suppliers experienced a rapid increase of orders for PPE and a shortage of body pouches as people prepared for the worst. In both the SARS and Ebola situations, suppliers were left with large inventories which eventually were either purchased or disposed of, due to shelf-life expiration. Supply Chain After it became clear last spring that COVID-19 was 18 www.ogr.org | Spring 2021 becoming a pandemic, the buying frenzy began, and shortages began to appear. The demand for disinfectants grew exponentially as the general public responded to the high infection rate present with COVID-19, resulting in many of the major manufacturers not being able to keep up with demand. Anything with a label containing the term “anti-bacterial” swiftly left the shelves, and funeral service was no exception. Demand for disinfectant registered with the Environmental Protection Agency sky-rocketed, and Dodge was left to make the decision whether to attempt to supply more of our customers with products by limiting orders, or fulfill some of the massive orders we were receiving by large customers. Even when we did decide to place limitations on quantities, our inventory was quickly depleted of disinfectants we purchased from outside vendors. Fortunately, we were able to reformulate one of our Dodge-manufactured products to meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) threshold for disinfection, and ramped-up our production. Personal Protective Equipment, however, was another problem. N95 health care respirators are manufactured to a high specification standard and were the only health care respirator endorsed by the CDC. As the inventory for N95 was depleted worldwide, other masks were marketed as being “just as good,” including
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