The White House Has Erected A Blockade Stopping States and Hospitals From Getting Coronavirus PPE

[Judi Lynn]

11:26 A.M.

By David Wallace-Wells

Whenever you start to think that the federal government under Donald Trump has hit a moral bottom, it finds a new way to shock and horrify.

Over the last few weeks, it has started to appear as though, in addition to abandoning the states to their own devices in a time of national emergency, the federal government has effectively erected a blockade — like that which the Union used to choke off the supply chains of the Confederacy during the Civil War — to prevent delivery of critical medical equipment to states desperately in need. At the very least, federal authorities have made governors and hospital executives all around the country operate in fear that shipments of necessary supplies will be seized along the way. In a time of pandemic, having evacuated federal responsibility, the White House is functionally waging a war against state leadership and the initiative of local hospitals to secure what they need to provide sufficient treatment.

Yesterday, a letter published by the New England Journal of Medicine highlighted the extraordinary measures that had to be taken to secure the delivery into Massachusetts of equipment that had been bought and paid for. The NEJM, which featured the letter in its COVID-19 Notes series, is far from a platform of partisan alarm or hysteria — it is among the most sober and high-minded professional journals in the country. It’s worth reading the correspondence, written by an executive running a small health system, at some length:

Our supply-chain group has worked around the clock to secure gowns, gloves, face masks, goggles, face shields, and N95 respirators. These employees have adapted to a new normal, exploring every lead, no matter how unusual. Deals, some bizarre and convoluted, and many involving large sums of money, have dissolved at the last minute when we were outbid or outmuscled, sometimes by the federal government. Then we got lucky, but getting the supplies was not easy.

More:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/hospitals-face-a-white-house-blockade-for-coronavirus-ppe.html

[Iliyah]

1. And republicans say nada . . . .

sad.

[SheltieLover]

2. LOCK HIS FAT ASS UP!

🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

TY, Judi Lynn for this post.

[cayugafalls]

3. At what point does our media call him a Criminal? They are at the rallies every day.

Just call him a criminal. It seems easy.

Reporter, "Mr. Dump, you criminally pirate PPE intended to help hospitals and divert them to who knows where for the purpose of lining your own pockets and those of your handlers. Why are you such a blatant criminal?" "Americans would like to know."

Mr. Dump..."Blather, blather, blub, blub, repugnant question, horrible person, not me, not me...blather, blather."

Second Reporter, "So you are a criminal and won't answer the question. If you're a criminal and won't answer question, why should anyone believe your lies? You lie, that is all you do, lie."

ad nauseam...never let up...let him run from the podium pooping his pants. Who cares...

[sprinkleeninow]

12. instead of going 'commando'

* going 'dependo'

[cayugafalls]

13. He does look like he wears depends...

[lagomorph777]

21. And they seem to be very full.

[kacekwl]

17. The way it should be done. If "reporters" would do this

it would not take long to drive him completely mad. Or run away and hide at his ghastly rallies.

[live love laugh]

19. It's not "our media" sadly. nt

[cayugafalls]

20. You are right. I know better...corporate media. My bad. Thanks. nt

[Girard442]

4. Article: "...unlike the kind of disruptions you'd want to engineer against antagonistic states..."

the purpose seems completely unclear.

To Trump, these are antagonistic states. If they don't love him, they're enemies. The purpose seems pretty clear too.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. The chief executive of a MA hospital, outbid for PPE by the feds multiple times, cut a deal, ...

Walter Shaub Retweeted

This is insane—and a far more important story than Trump being mean to reporters.

Link to tweet

The chief executive of a MA hospital, outbid for PPE by the feds multiple times, cut a deal, paid extra, hired the trucks — and then was interrogated by the FBI and had to get his Congressperson to intervene to keep DHS from heisting the shipment.
https://nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2010025

Link to tweet

In Pursuit of PPE

To rapidly communicate short reports of innovative responses to Covid-19 around the world, along with a range of current thinking on policy and strategy relevant to the pandemic, the Journal has initiated the Covid-19 Notes series.

As a chief physician executive, I rarely get involved in my health system’s supply-chain activities. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed that. Protecting our caregivers is essential so that these talented professionals can safely provide compassionate care to our patients. Yet we continue to be stymied by a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), and the cavalry does not appear to be coming.

Our supply-chain group has worked around the clock to secure gowns, gloves, face masks, goggles, face shields, and N95 respirators. These employees have adapted to a new normal, exploring every lead, no matter how unusual. Deals, some bizarre and convoluted, and many involving large sums of money, have dissolved at the last minute when we were outbid or outmuscled, sometimes by the federal government. Then we got lucky, but getting the supplies was not easy.

A lead came from an acquaintance of a friend of a team member. After several hours of vetting, we grew confident of the broker’s professional pedigree and the potential to secure a large shipment of three-ply face masks and N95 respirators. The latter were KN95 respirators, N95s that were made in China. We received samples to confirm that they could be successfully fit-tested. Despite having cleared this hurdle, we remained concerned that the samples might not be representative of the bulk of the products that we would be buying. Having acquired the requisite funds — more than five times the amount we would normally pay for a similar shipment, but still less than what was being requested by other brokers — we set the plan in motion. Three members of the supply-chain team and a fit tester were flown to a small airport near an industrial warehouse in the mid-Atlantic region. I arrived by car to make the final call on whether to execute the deal. Two semi-trailer trucks, cleverly marked as food-service vehicles, met us at the warehouse. When fully loaded, the trucks would take two distinct routes back to Massachusetts to minimize the chances that their contents would be detained or redirected.

Hours before our planned departure, we were told to expect only a quarter of our original order. We went anyway, since we desperately needed any supplies we could get. Upon arrival, we were jubilant to see pallets of KN95 respirators and face masks being unloaded. We opened several boxes, examined their contents, and hoped that this random sample would be representative of the entire shipment. Before we could send the funds by wire transfer, two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrived, showed their badges, and started questioning me. No, this shipment was not headed for resale or the black market. The agents checked my credentials, and I tried to convince them that the shipment of PPE was bound for hospitals. After receiving my assurances and hearing about our health system’s urgent needs, the agents let the boxes of equipment be released and loaded into the trucks. But I was soon shocked to learn that the Department of Homeland Security was still considering redirecting our PPE. Only some quick calls leading to intervention by our congressional representative prevented its seizure. I remained nervous and worried on the long drive back, feelings that did not abate until midnight, when I received the call that the PPE shipment was secured at our warehouse.

This experience might have made for an entertaining tale at a cocktail party, had the success of our mission not been so critical. Did I foresee, as a health-system leader working in a rich, highly developed country with state-of-the-art science and technology and incredible talent, that my organization would ever be faced with such a set of circumstances? Of course not. Yet when encountering the severe constraints that attend this pandemic, we must leave no stone unturned to give our health care teams and our patients a fighting chance. This is the unfortunate reality we face in the time of Covid-19.

Andrew W. Artenstein, M.D.
Baystate Health, Springfield, MA

Disclosure forms provided by the author are available with the full text of this note at NEJM.org.

This note was published on April 17, 2020, at NEJM.org.

[2naSalit]

6. K&R

[C_U_L8R]

7. States may need the national guard and state police

to fight off federal piracy. Crazy.

[DENVERPOPS]

18. The Governor of Massachusetts

had to resort to having two planes owned by the owner of the Boston Patriots fly to China, get loaded with critical supplies, then fly NON-STOP back to Boston. The governor then had the ARMED Massachusetts National Guard meet the plane on the tarmac. The governor had semis waiting, loaded and then escorted by armed national guard soldiers and armed State Police all the way to the Massachusetts hospitals.....

This isn't supposed to be a third world dictator controlled nation, this is the USA and it is taking place today.....

WASF

[jalan48]

8. Trump really is part of the Mob.

"We don’t know on what grounds they are being seized, or threatened with seizure. What business do the DHS and FEMA have with ventilators and PPE purchases by governors and local hospitals? “This is like a story out of the last days of the Soviet Union,” David Frum wrote on Twitter, of the NEJM letter. “This is what it means to be a failed state,” wrote the essayist Umair Haque, echoing him. In the absence of an explanation, it is hard to come to any conclusion other than that this is simply mafia government, exerting control for the sake of control, not in spite of but because of the crisis-led demand, and squeezing the American people, as they die in hospital beds and attend — with inadequate protection — to the sick and scared."

[tiptonic]

9. Russia

Bet Russia docent have to deal with this kinda of insanity. They probably have gotten some of our PPE already. The 'free market system' at work.

[Starfury]

10. And Putin does his happy dance...

Putin approves of anything that trump does to cause discord or us to mistrust our government.

[bucolic_frolic]

11. Really, are they aiming for maximum pandemic crisis on November 3?

I mean this has just been one foulup after another. A monkey throwing darts at the wall could make better decisions.

[bringthePaine]

14. trying so hard to cover his criminal, murderous ass,

with clear intent of dividing citizenry for civil war before elections destroy him

[Blue Owl]

15. Eat shit and die, tRump

n/t

[keithbvadu2]

16. Where are the supplies that Trump has been confiscating?

Where are the supplies that Trump has been confiscating?

---------------------------
Republican seller has 'relationships with a lot of people.'

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142462680

Republican fundraiser looks to cash in on coronavirus

The fundraiser, Mike Gula, didn’t specify his new line of work in the email. But in an interview, he said he’d started a new company selling medical equipment that’s been in short supply during the coronavirus pandemic.
----------
Asked how he’d managed to procure such equipment when there are shortages in hospitals across the country, Gula said, “I have relationships with a lot of people.”

[Sir Normie]

22. Like Stalin Deliberately Starving Ukraine

And now Putin ordering an American equivalent, which his cowardly Orange Viceroy is only too happy to facilitate.