Where have all the thermometers gone? Suppliers can’t keep up as the pandemic drags on
The thermometers stockpiled alongside toilet paper at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic are now just as likely to be missing from shelves, experts say.
A spike in consumer demand over the last few months, combined with bulk orders from companies preparing to reopen with mandatory temperature checks and a backlog at factories in China where they’re produced, has created a perfect storm.
“We are struggling to keep up,” Marc Blitstein, CEO of American Diagnostic Corp., told CNN Business.
American Diagnostic is one of the largest thermometer manufacturers in the U.S., CNN reported. According to Blitstein, demand for the non-contact thermometers, which many restaurants and retailers have said they’ll use to take people’s temperature, is up 900%.
Demand for traditional digital thermometers are up 300%, he told CNN.
Shortages were predicted early
Reports of possible thermometer shortages started in late March, right around the time the U.S. surpassed China and Italy to lead the world in confirmed cases of COVID-19.
The Chicago Sun-Times checked online listings for thermometers during the week leading up to March 31 only to find “almost no available stock” at places like Amazon, Walgreens, Walmart, Target and CVS. The newspaper reported many had disabled their “buy” buttons or had pushed shipping dates back to May and June.
Around the same time, Tom Friedan, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, addressed the need for a coordinated effort to keep thermometers available.
“I sure hope SOMEONE is coordinating thermometer production,” he said on Twitter.
The tweet was an addendum to an opinion piece Friedan penned for Fox News detailing what he hoped a letter to the American people from the U.S. surgeon general might say. In it, Friedan suggested such a letter come with a digital thermometer — “something every U.S. household needs,” he said.
It’s a call the Wall Street Journal echoed last month, citing Fine Song, a family physician and medical instructor at Duke University.
“Once you’re sick, you’re not going to want to shop, and these days visiting a store while under the weather would be socially irresponsible, Dr. Song says,” the Journal reported. “So, while you’re still feeling healthy, call ahead to your local pharmacy or search online. Like toilet paper, thermometers may be hard to find.”
How did this happen
Experts point to a supply chain breakdown in China as part of the cause, USA Today reported.
“The shortage is even worse than with toilet paper,” according to the media outlet. “And the problem is not likely to get fixed for months unless customers spring for more expensive models — or if there’s an intervention of some sort.”
Stan Cohen, owner of 180 Innovations, a firm that imports thermometers for U.S. retailers, told USA Today that China makes “about 90% or more” of the thermometers stocked at Walgreens, CVS and other similar retailers.
China — the epicenter of the outbreak — shut down production in January but kept an “ample supply” of thermometers on hand for its own citizens, according to USA Today. A spike in U.S. demand followed.
“That’s also about when the supply started drying up,” the media outlet reported.
When will thermometers be back in stock?
Cohen told USA Today some of his biggest customers like CVS and RiteAid recently paid a premium to get thermometers on the shelves quicker, helping to temporarily replenish stock.
Another importer, Veridian Healthcare, said stick thermometers would be “filtering in all the way from mid-May all the way through July” and “non-contact thermometers will be filtering in June through August,” USA Today reported, citing a company representative.
By comparison, Blitstein — of American Diagnostic — told CNN Business select products from his company are available online from Amazon.
“But more than a dozen models are sold out through the summer and others are sold out through October,” CNN reported.
There is, however, some good news, Sunil Chopra — a Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management professor and expert on operations management — told the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Personal-care thermometers aren’t particularly complex to manufacture, so it shouldn’t be long before supplies return,” according to Chopra.
