Offered without comment. None needed.
“The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile, It’s not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use.” – Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and adviser, at a White House briefing last Thursday, 2 April.
The federal stockpile of you know what.
I know, I know. You’re saying, “What? Another piece on the federal government’s inept performance to get masks and ventilators to the states?”
Yup. Some seemingly dead horses need new beatings when new facts emerge, and, as John Adams said 250 years ago when defending British soldiers on trial for their roles in the Boston Massacre, “Facts are stubborn things.”
But first, a word about the Associated Press (bet you didn’t see that one coming).
The AP, founded 173 years ago, is a cooperative, unincorporated association. Its members are U.S. newspapers and broadcasters. Its 3,200 employees operate out of 263 bureaus in 106 countries. It’s won 53 Pulitzer Prizes since the prize was created in 1917, and its AP Stylebook is the gold standard for reporters. Although everyone makes mistakes, and the AP is no exception, it exemplifies what news reporting ought to be.
Yesterday, the AP reported on its investigation into federal purchasing contracts for COVID 19 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and Ventilators. The investigation showed that:
As the first alarms sounded in early January that an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China might ignite a global pandemic, the Trump administration squandered nearly two months that could have been used to bolster the federal stockpile of critically needed medical supplies and equipment.
A review of federal purchasing contracts by The Associated Press shows federal agencies largely waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line healthcare workers.
The President has said repeatedly that the states should be purchasing the PPE they need to confront the virus and that the stockpile is a last resort (see the Jared Kushner quote, above). On 19 March Trump said of the federal government, “We’re not a shipping clerk.” Trouble is, we now have a situation where:
- The stockpile is nearly empty, because Trump, under constant criticism from the governors, was forced to distribute much of it;
- The federal government is now buying all the PPE and ventilators it can find all over the world;
- The states continue to try to buy, scrounge, or borrow PPE and ventilators wherever they can; and,
- Everybody’s competing with each other for the stuff, driving up prices, creating a seller’s market (think price gouging as an art form).
What’s going on in the Situation Room?
CNN is reporting a “heated disagreement” over the weekend in the Situation Room about the efficacy of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. Multiple sources told the network Donald Trump’s top trade adviser Peter Navarro, recommending widespread use of the drug,”feuded with other officials over the drug’s unproven effectiveness to treat coronavirus.” In particular, Navarro took great exception to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of NIH’s National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a post he’s held since 1984, telling him there was no data to indicate hydroxychloroquine is in any way effective, let alone safe, for treating COVID 19. CNN reports Navarro came to the meeting armed with documents he said proved his point, but which Dr. Fauci called anecdotes, and anecdotes are not data. Apparently, Dr Fauci saying to Navarro, who is not a member of the White House Task Force, “What are you talking about?” was particularly upsetting to the Trade Advisor.
Asked about the exchange today on CNN’s “New Day” Monday morning, Navarro claimed he is qualified to disagree with Dr. Fauci about COVID 19, despite not working in the health care field, because he has a PH.D. and is a Social Scientist. According to Merriam-Webster, Social Science is “a branch of science that deals with the institutions and functioning of human society and with the interpersonal relationships of individuals as members of society.” Surely that qualifies Dr. Navarro to recommend unproven medical treatments for the hundreds of thousands of current and projected victims of COVID 19 and to hijack the Task Force’s valuable time in the Situation Room. Split hairs are thicker than Navarro’s logic.
On the other hand.
This morning, Maggie Haberman, of the New York Times reported that Navarro warned the administration late in January that the “coronavirus crisis could cost the United States trillions of dollars and put millions of Americans at risk of illness or death.” Navarro wrote in a memo that a “lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.”
Too bad Navarro couldn’t prevail in that discussion back in January. We give him points for trying.
And what about those masks?
China is the world’s leading producer of surgical masks, turning out 50 to 60 million of them per day. When COVID 19 happened, China increased production to – get ready for this – 200 million per day. But because the pandemic originated in China, most of those masks stayed there. When the pandemic eased in China, masks once again began flowing, albeit more slowly and at greater cost, to the rest of the world, which, by that time, was already in the throes of the pandemic. Masks became the new gold.
Yesterday, NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly interviewed Mike Bowen, Co-Owner and Executive Vice President of Prestige Ameritech, located in North Richmond Hills, Texas. Mr. Bowen’s firm is the largest domestic maker of healthcare masks in this country. Governments, the healthcare industry, and companies from all over the world are asking him and the other American mask makers to supply them with masks, given the Chinese have turned down the spigot. During the interview, Bowen was discouraged and discouraging about his firm’s success prospects in picking up the Chinese slack to produce more masks. According to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, as of 10 March, the U.S only had about 1% of the 3.5 billion masks it needs to combat this pandemic. Bowen said every day he gets more than 400 emails asking for masks. But he can’t provide what he doesn’t have. He said, “It’s not like flipping a switch.” Machines have to be built, employees hired and trained. And when this is over, what does he do with the new machines and the new workers when demand has dropped off?
Bowen told Kelly he has been here before, during H1N1, when he built new machines, hired and trained workers and, after the scare was over, nearly went bankrupt. He had to lay off 150 people and moth-ball his machines. He’s afraid that’s what will happen again, as are all the other mask manufacturers.
And why is that? Bowen says because his masks are made in America, they are more expensive than masks made in Mexico and China. Consequently, until COVID 19, his firm had, in his words, “zero masks” going to federal agencies. Prestige has repeatedly bid on federal contracts for masks with HHS and DOD, but has never succeeded, because of cost.
Even going all out, 24/7, Bowen claims there is no way on God’s Green Earth he, and all the other mask-making companies, will ever be able to get all the masks COVID 19 requires to American health care workers. Sobering, indeed.
On that happy note, I leave you until next time.
