As the country watches New York struggle with rationing its medical equipment while drawing its share from the national stockpile, President Trump on Thursday invoked the national Defense Production Act.
He also chastised 3M, the Minnesota-headquartered global company, for continuing to sell their industrial facemasks on the open market, as the United States tries to chase down needed medical equipment for the pandemic in our own country.
The head of Florida's Division of Emergency
Management has accused U.S. mask manufacturer 3M of shipping the
critical protective equipment to foreign countries who outbid U.S.
buyers -- even as hospitals and state officials desperately scramble to
secure N95 protective masks for healthcare workers on the frontlines of
the coronavirus pandemic.
Jared Moskowitz told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Thursday
that he discovered that 3M distributors were prioritizing foreign
buyers after they refused to sell him the essential equipment.
"They're
specifically saying, 'Listen, we are sorry your order got pushed down,
but ... there are foreign countries who do business differently and
they're showing up with cash.'"
Moskowitz said he has a hard time
grappling with "the idea that an American company is selling masks
away from our hospitals, away from our doctors ... away from the real
heroes on the front lines" and called for investigations into what he
described as "criminal" activity.
"I can't... get this life-saving PPE because a company decided to make a globalist decision and not put America first."
— Jared Moskowitz
"I
can't, other emergency management directors, CEOs of hospitals can't
get this life-saving PPE [Personal Protective Equipment] because
a company decided to make a globalist decision and not put America
first."
Moskowitz
voiced his frustrations on Twitter and said he was later contacted by
the communications team at Minnesota-based 3M, who admitted to a "broken
system" but stopped short of taking action.
"I
thought perhaps maybe what 3M would finally say to me is that they have
masks to sell me, but what I actually found out is even more
frightening," he explained. "... Which is that the system is completely
broken. 3M has lost total control. What I asked 3M is, are they aware their authorized distributors -- U.S. companies -- are telling me the
reason why our orders are being pushed down is because foreign countries
are showing up with cash to purchase the orders ... not only did they
not dispute it, [but] I asked them if they put out any guidance to
prevent the behavior and the answer was no," Moskowitz added.
3M told Moskowitz that they had no stock to sell him, despite producing close to 10 million masks a day, "
I said ... 'I have money and I'd like to purchase some of those.' They
said I couldn't, they have no masks to sell me. It's criminal what is
happening."
Moskowitz emphasized that his criticism is not
directed towards the "workers in the factories at 3M who are working 24
hours a day to try to create this life-saving PPE. This is about the
executives who decided not to put America first and it's going to
have devastating consequences."
The official said he offered to pay "ten, sometimes twenty" times of the standard price of the masks, but was denied.
...
"Since
when do we have a U.S. company that sells masks and I try to offer them
money and they don't sell them to me? I have to go through
their authorized distributors and their only excuse is that they don't
have a perfect system.
"I'm
relegated to making deals with brokers at costs that are ten and
sometimes 20 times the actual costs of these masks, [but] at the end of
the day, regardless of the cost of this point, getting the mask is
the most important and we can't even get them."
Earlier in the
week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said his state was on the hunt for N95
masks and called the procurement process "shady as hell," adding that
despite ordering "so many," they only get a little bit here and a little
bit there.”
I'm sure the media will be on this story as soon as they report their finding about the masks and medical equipment that President Trump said was disappearing out the backdoors of many New York hospitals.
There are 49 states other than New York that will be facing consequences of the global pandemic in the coming weeks. Thank you, President Trump, for investigating how to best prepare the country for what we face, and for ordering U.S. companies to support their own in this fight...
#AmericaFirst. Because it's patriotic to help your people, before profiting the world...
---------------------------------
* Full disclosure?
I live in Oakdale*, Minnesota... You people who've been questioning why people like me drink bottled water, and not tap water, in times of pandemic and otherwise?
3M is why:
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has discovered that potentially
harmful chemicals are still leaching into surface water from a former 3M
waste disposal site in Oakdale, despite the company’s efforts to
contain them, regulators told 3M in a letter last week.
The MPCA has given the Maplewood-based manufacturer 45 days to come
up with a new plan to keep perfluoroalkyl substances — better known as
PFAS — from contaminating nearby water sources, the letter said.
“This is a continuing evolution of what needs to be done at this site
to address the contamination,” MPCA Assistant Commissioner Kirk
Koudelka said. “The system there to capture and keep any contamination
on site is not entirely working.”
* I don't usually buy water though, but fill my bottles up with good tap water elsewhere, for drinking and for the houseplants... (Funny how none of the $850 million settlement in Minnesota goes directly to East Metro residents and taxpayers who refuse to drink the water that comes from the tap... That's the legacy left to us.)
Carrying gallon jugs up 3 flights on a regular basis when making trips in and out helps avoid gym membership fees! The best exercise routines are the ones worked into your daily lifestyle as necessary for daily life. We don't all have to be athletes or physical workers even, but we do have a responsibility to carry our own weight, I was taught. Protect our own health the best we can. And provide for ourselves, and our own. Freedom means independence which relies on individual initiative and personal strength. Don't cheat yourself and ask others to do your lifting in life... You'll keep your back strong, and pare down your needs to what -- or who -- really matters most in life.
Make it a great weekend! Don't take more than your share, remember...
------------
UPDATED:
Go President Trump!
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is
seeking to use powers under a Korean War-era law to cut off 3M’s ability
to export surgical masks abroad and to claim more of the masks the
Minneapolis company manufactures in other countries for use in the
United States.
The policy would be a
significant expansion of the American government’s reach and a reversal
of President Trump’s hesitant use of the Defense Production Act, as his
administration seeks to procure much-needed protective gear for health
care workers.
Multi-national corporations that are operating out of American headquarters have to understand: #AmericaFirst. The panicky people have pumped this into a war: the actions in shutting down the economy, closing down the schools, and cancelling... EVERYthing are the actions one takes during wartime
All Americans must sacrifice now, we are told. 3M needs to protect American medical workers and members of the American public before they profit from selling their masks on the open global markets, during wartime...
