April 6, 2020/Press

Bombshell AP Investigation Found US “Wasted” Months, Yet Tillis Still Defends Federal Response

Senator Tillis again refused to say where the supplies are for North Carolina’s frontline workers and defended the federal government’s response, even as a new bombshell AP investigation revealed that the federal government “wasted” months by not trying to secure additional personal protective equipment (PPE).

North Carolina has received just 30% of what the state has asked for — and are still waiting on  “52% of requested N95 masks, 67% of requested face shields, 82% of requested gowns & more.” But when asked when NC can expect more supplies, Tillis defended the response and said that the federal government is “trying to keep a portion of the stockpile in reserve.

Yet according to a new bombshell investigation from AP, the administration “squandered nearly two months that could have been used to bolster the federal stockpile of critically needed medical supplies and equipment.” Now, months into this crisis, the “stockpile is nearly drained just as the numbers of patients needing critical care is surging.”

Senator Tillis continues to downplay the PPE crisis facing North Carolina frontline workers and defend the federal government’s response. Medical workers, meanwhile, “don’t feel like they have the protection and the ammunition that they need” and are begging legislators, “we need PPE… We need help and we need it fast.

Senator Tillis, where is the PPE?

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Associated Press: U.S. ‘wasted’ months before preparing for virus pandemic
By Michael Biesecker
April 5, 2020

Key Points:

  • After 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 health care workers.
  • Now, three months into the crisis, that stockpile is nearly drained just as the numbers of patients needing critical care is surging. Some state and local officials report receiving broken ventilators and decade-old dry-rotted masks.
  • “We basically wasted two months,” Kathleen Sebelius, health and human services secretary during the Obama administration, told AP.
  • Trump spent January and February playing down the threat from the new virus. He derided warnings of pandemic reaching the U.S. as a hoax perpetrated by Democrats and the media. As the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global public health emergency on Jan. 30, Trump assured the American people that the virus was “very well under control” and he predicted “a very good ending.”