According to figures from the Census Bureau, American companies sold more than $17.5 million worth of face masks, over $13.6 million in surgical garments and more than $27.2 million in ventilators to China during January and February of this year.
While President Trump was receiving briefings that the coronavirus was headed toward the US, he still allowed exports of PPE and ventilators. The first case of coronavirus arrived in the USA on January 20, but didn’t relax tariffs on the import of these items from China until March 10th and 12th. Only a week later did he invoke the National Defense Production Act, which would give him the ability to force companies to produce to fill the needs of national security before any others.
On January 22nd, Michael Bowen of Prestige Armitech, a medical supply company based in Texas, emailed an offer to senior officials in the Department of Health and Human Services. It would be difficult, but he was willing and able to ramp up production of N95 masks by an additional 1.7 million masks a week. He was getting orders for masks from Hong Kong, but he gave the US government first dibs.
The US Government said thanks, but no thanks. It was a serious mistake. Production lines that could have been making 7 million masks a month are now shut down. Bowen even sent a warning to Dr.Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority on January 26th. He was worried about the risk of the country running out of N95 masks.
According to a senior HHS official speaking on condition of remaining anonymous “we didn’t have the money to do it at that time.” Another official, speaking on the same conditions of anonymity, added: “There is a process for putting out contracts. It wasn’t as fast as anyone wanted it to be.”
So what happens in mid April is simply mind boggling. Panthera Worldwide, LLC, a company that went into bankruptcy protection last fall and supposedly has had no employees since May 2019 was awarded a $55 million dollar FEMA contract to provide N95 masks. Forget for a second that the government was being price-gouged (paying about $5.50 per mask where 3M’s masks are around $0.63) – this company was out of business. Even when they were in business, they had no record of producing or procuring medical supplies. A Panthera executive, James V. Punelli, has gone on record to say “We will provide these masks before May 1 for certain, in full and with a very high-quality product…” Supposedly Panthera provided FEMA with written confirmation that the masks were in shipping, with delivery scheduled for April 23. As of the time of this article, it is unknown for certain if the masks were actually received.
A world-wide pandemic isn’t the time to try and source new vendors for anything, much less life saving equipment. But the offer put forward by Yaron Oren-Pines seemed so good that the state of New York took it seriously – and awarded him a $86 million dollar contract for 1,450 ventilators. That would have priced each ventilator at around $59,000 a piece, up from the price of $45,000 at the time, which was up from a pre-pandemic estimate of $25,000.
It seems the government considered it irrelevant that the Silicon Valley engineer had no background in medical supply procurement. The White House coronavirus task force put his name forward, the State wired him $69 of the $86 million, and Oren-Pines was able to get a hold of $10 million before red flags went up and the contract fell apart. The bank froze the wire because of a suspicious transaction on his account, there were possible shipping complications and delays, and state officials couldn’t get inspectors to China to confirm the stockpile of ventilators.
$141 million dollars awarded to problematic companies in the middle of a pandemic that (as of 5/10/2020) has sickened 1.36 million Americans, and
killed over 80,000. Whether the companies got the money or not, whether the government got the money back or not, there are serious questions that need answers. Why was PPE being exported in February, when coronavirus was already in the US? Why wasn’t Bowen taken up on his offer – and why wasn’t Dr. Bright taken seriously? We all know what happened to Bright, unfortunately. He was removed from his post because of repeatedly raising concerns about America being prepared for the coronavirus and over using hydroxychloroquine as a form of treatment.
It is because of errors like these (and many more) that so Americans have contracted COVID-19. Some have paid for Trump’s mistakes with their lives. Because of his ineffectual, profit before people mindset, PPE that could have been used to protect our citizens, our doctors and first responders was sent to China.
The day where he will have to answer to the American people is not long in coming – and there is no answer that is good enough, not at any price.
SOURCE MATERIAL:
