www.washingtonpost.com/…
This is just jaw-dropping. Starting in mid-January, Mike Bowen, the VP of the biggest US manufacturer of N-95 masks, reached out repeatedly to the federal government offering to ramp up production to meet the need for a pandemic. They had large orders coming from other countries, and wanted to make the masks available domestically.
He was in regular touch with Rick Bright, the whistleblower who was recently ousted as vaccine director for his criticism of the untested treatment being pushed by Trump. Dr. Bright was trying to get someone to respond to Bowen, who repeatedly expressed concern about mask supplies not being sufficient to meet the need that was anticipated.
Steve Bannon was even a part of trying to get this going.
Bowen started talking to reporters about the mask shortage in general terms. He was soon invited to appear on former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon’s podcast: “War Room: Pandemic.” On the Feb. 12 podcast, the two commiserated over the beleaguered state of U.S. manufacturing. “What I’ve been saying since 2007 is, ‘Guys, I’m warning you, here’s what is going to happen, let’s prepare,’ ” Bowen said on the program. “Because if you call me after it starts, I can’t help everybody.” Bowen said Bannon put him in touch with Navarro, the White House economic adviser.
And it was looking like this was going to do it, but the ball got dropped again.
Most of the masks that the federal government finally purchased were foreign-made and purchased at a premium through intermediaries.
The government soon spent over $600 million on contracts involving masks. Big companies like Honeywell and 3M were each awarded contracts totaling for over $170 million for protective gear. One distributor of tactical gear — a company with no history of procuring medical equipment — was awarded a $55 million deal to provide masks for as much as $5.50 a piece, eight times what the government was paying months earlier.
It appears that this massive fuck up was part of Rick Bright’s whistleblower complaint.
I don’t know how they can defend themselves on this one—between not preventing a mask shortage as a public health crisis was imminent, paying way more than they would have if they had gotten domestic production going early, and buying foreign-made masks when a domestic manufacturer was offering to do it for less money. And I wonder what will be coming out about how the intermediary companies got the bids while they blew off Prestige Ameritech. Indefensible.
Sunday, May 10, 2020 · 6:39:16 PM +00:00 · Clarity1
d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/...
A couple of commenters were kind enough to post a link to Rick Bright’s whistleblower complaint. Some of it is technical, but it is surprisingly accessible. It provides a scathing statement about scientifically-based public health concerns taking a backseat to cronyism, and the retaliation Dr. Bright was subject to for speaking out about it. It deserves its own diary.