Robert Reich4 years ago, an exec for a top PPE producer testified to Congress that in Jan 2020 (as fear of covid began to spread) his firm offered to ramp up production to make 1.7 million N95 masks available to the public per week.
The Trump admin said no.
MaksiSanctum has moved@rbreich Hard to forget when Trump literally stole shipments of N95's coming to MA and sent them to red states:
https://www.wcvb.com/article/3-million-masks-ordered-by-massachusetts-were-confiscated-in-port-of-new-york/32021700
SpaceLifeFormMore likely, trump said no because he would not get any money from it.
Ben Taylor@rbreich I'm no Trump fan, but in this instance I'd offer up us in the UK as a counterexample. We said yes to everyone who was mates with a Tory MP offering to sell us PPE (and ignored those who weren't) and literally ended up with the guy who ran the health secretary's local pub getting a giant government contract. Billions of pounds spent on PPE that was unusable and simply burned.
Needed to take opportunities, yes. But also to have a process that worked.
Mister Moo 🐮@rbreich Denial is a hell of a drug: "...by April or during the month of April, the heat, generally speaking, kills this kind of virus" Donald Trump, February 10, 2020. "It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear" Donald Trump, February 27, 2020. "...we're prepared, and we're doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away" Donald Trump, March 10, 2020. "I said it was going away - and it is going away" Donald Trump, April 3, 2020.
JoeA@rbreich well hey, at least now that we mostly killed domestic respirator production we can turn up the tariff on Chinese PPE and make protection really expensive! Should work great (/s)
bouriquet@rbreich That was the same Trump administration that ignored the already-prepared playbook on a national pandemic developed by the Obama administration.
A pandemic plan was in place. Trump abandoned it — and science — in the face of Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic is a crisis that must be understood and addressed using science. We are failing to solve it because America is led by an administration that not only isn't scientific but is actively anti-science.
Arnar Geir Nielsson@[email protected] mask are useless and i'm disappointed in u sir. it is accepted silently by everyone that COVID-19 indeed saved lives becouse a lot more died of flu years prior..but in reality a lot more healthy people died. Lost everything or just killed them self. or just still suffering.How dare you sir trying to use some worthless masks as a weapon against the only man that did see through this. im not a voter and my only relationship I have with US is in form of food, music, Net
Megahertz@bobus78 Your comedy routine needs a lot more work. You bot.
Scott Knowles@rbreich Don't forget Jared Kushner given power over some of COVID funds for buying medical supplies, and he gave millions to his buddies who had no experience running a business or buying medical supplies. What they supplied was garbage, but they kept the money.