WASHINGTON – For nearly a decade the Homeland Security Department has stockpiled supplies, from respirators and surgical masks to hand sanitizer and antiviral medications, in case of a pandemic. But the agency stocked up without knowing exactly what it needed and now most of the gear and medicine on hand will be unusable after next year, according to an audit by the agency’s inspector general released Monday.
Inspector General John Roth found that Homeland Security has about 300,000 vials of antiviral medications Tamiflu and Relenza, but 81 percent of the medicine will expire next year. And of the more than 4,982 bottles of hand sanitizer inspected, about 84 percent were expired, in some cases by as long as four years.
via Department of Homeland Security gets a bad grade for pandemic readiness – CBS News.