Alexander Salerno is a primary care physician at Salerno Medical Associates, a family practice in New Jersey dedicated to population health, chronic disease management and community health. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own.

I recently paid black market brokers $17,000 for personal protective equipment (PPE). With critical supply shortages, I had no choice but to pay a 700% markup for life-saving gloves, N95 respirators and gowns. Covid-19 patients have overwhelmed my family practice in New Jersey. And when my staff is seeing upwards of 300 patients a day, protecting my medical personnel so we can continue to provide care is my top priority.

As a primary care practice, we are on the frontlines trying our best to stem an onslaught of Covid-19 patients from overrunning emergency rooms in New Jersey, as they have just across the Hudson River in New York City. The demand for PPE is up to 100 times higher than normal right now, and the Strategic National Stockpile recently deployed the last round of protective gear.

We are in desperate need of PPE and testing kits. Because the United States outsources the production of medical supplies and test components to other countries, and those countries have been under lockdown due to the pandemic, we are in the midst of the greatest supply shortage I've ever seen.

Now the United States is facing another hurdle to import tests and medical supplies from manufacturers abroad. In a push for quality control, China has implemented new export requirements on medical products being used to respond to the pandemic. Exports of test kits and PPE require new certifications and licenses from China's equivalent of the US Food and Drug Administration. Previously, exporters were only required to work with the United States to make sure products were compliant with our import requirements.

Read More