A noted statue in central Helsinki has been refashioned with a coronavirus theme. Credit...Kimmo Brandt/EPA, via Shutterstock
Via The New York Times: Coronavirus Live Updates: Finland, a 'prepper nation,' has an enviable supply of masks.
As some nations scramble to find protective masks, ventilators and gowns to fight the coronavirus, one Nordic country is confronting the pandemic with a large network of medical supplies: Finland.
The stockpile, considered one of Europe’s best and built up over years, has cast a spotlight on Finland’s preparedness and exposed the vulnerability of other nations that lack their own.
Finland’s system has been in place since the 1950s, the authorities said. Norway, Sweden and Denmark also amassed large stockpiles of medical and military equipment, fuel and food during the Cold War era. Later, most of them all but abandoned those stockpiles. But Finland did not.
Its history, including fighting off a Soviet invasion in 1939, has taught the nation of 5.5 million to prepare for the worst, said Tomi Lounema, the chief executive of Finland’s National Emergency Supply Agency.
“Finland is the prepper nation of the Nordics, always ready for a major catastrophe or a World War III,” said Magnus Hakenstad, a scholar at the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies.
When the coronavirus hit, Finland’s government tapped into its supply of medical equipment for the first time since World War II. Two weeks ago, as the country’s coronavirus cases ticked up — by Sunday, the country had recorded more than 1,880 cases and 25 deaths — the health ministry ordered that stored masks be sent to hospitals around the country.
“The masks are old, but they are still functioning,” Mr. Lounema said this weekend. As for how many masks are being stored and where, he said that information was classified.
