How does PPE go out of date? It’s not like you eat it. Plus, presumably it was being stockpiled just in case there was a pandemic, not because one had happened. The threat level surely would have been the same at the time they burnt it all so shouldn’t it have been replaced with in date PPE?
I'd also read that out-of-date PPE had gone off to be burned, but I'm not sure what PPE that referred to, nor to what extent it may be accurate.
Numerous countries appear to have got caught behind the ball by the lack of PPE and / or other basic supplies, e.g., syringes.
On FFP2 masks, which I assume are similar to the N95 ones, the elastic and nose-bridge bit can deteriorate over time.
During crisis situations where there is a shortage of N95 respirators, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended strategies for optimizing their use in healthcare settings.[4] N95 respirators can be used beyond their manufacturer-designated shelf life, although components such as the straps and nose bridge material may degrade, making it particularly important that the wearer perform the expected seal check.[4][23]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N95_maskThe 3M site also states required storage conditions, which some countries may not have adhered to (temperature, humidity, etc.)
On the French situation in particular, it seems that the government authority still had an emergency stock of "surgical" masks, but no FFP2 ones. (A previous government's reforms had left the responsibility of procurement of FFP2 up to public and private employers.)
https://www.lci.fr/sante/coronavirus-epidemie-covid-19-pourquoi-la-france-est-en-penurie-de-masques-ffp2-2148489.htmlA common misconception in several first-world countries, from what I can gather, is that the local industry had the
capacity to manufacture them - which most (all?) do. Fine. But where I find them to have been incredibly dim is that they were still reliant on imports of raw materials / components and of extra PPE/ supplies from, erm, China.
