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It happened again. FEMA under the direction of Kushner, took some supplies that DID NOT BELONG to them … they swooped in with an offer, the seller could not refuse.
[...]
[Colorado Governor} Polis, a guest on CNN Friday night, told anchor Don Lemon that the state had "a lead" on a manufacturer of ventilators that would come in at a good price, and then the Federal Emergency Management Administration came in and swept them up "and we're not getting them." The order was for 500 ventilators, which would have been a substantial addition to the state's stockpile.
[...]
Lemon asked Polis if he's raised the issue with the White House, that federal efforts are undermining Colorado's attempts to get PPE.
"Either be in or out," Polis said. Either the feds are buying them and providing to the states, and "letting us know what we're gong to get and when we're going to get them or stay out and let us buy them.
"We can't compete against our federal government. Either work with us or don't do anything at all," Polis said. Putting Colorado into a middle ground, where the feds are buying stuff "out from under us and not telling us what we'll get," makes it a challenge to manage the state's hospital surge and the safety of health care workers.
[...]
Apparently this kind of “logistical problem solving” by FEMA and HHS has been happening for about two weeks now:
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The void left by that absence is being filled by Kushner. As head of an ad hoc task force, Kushner is “working alongside government officials from FEMA, HHS, and USAID to solve a range of logistical and technical challenges” and “has stepped in to coordinate decision-making at agencies including the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,” according to Politico. “I don’t know how our government operates anymore,” one Republican source complains.
[...] There is no chance that bringing in a rich kid who happened to marry into the family to direct the federal government’s response to a catastrophic pandemic is an optimal, or even reasonable, management structure.
When you have to re-write an Agency’s Mission statement in the dead of the night, you know something is not on the up-and-up.
After Kushner says 'it's our stockpile,' HHS website changed to echo his comments on federal crisis role
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But the national stockpile actually is intended for states' use, which was clearly explained on the government's own website -- until the language was changed, without explanation, hours after Kushner provided his inaccurate description.
Until Friday morning, the website of the Department of Health and Human Services, which maintains the stockpile, read, "When state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency."
But midday Friday, hours after Kushner directly contradicted the language on the HHS website, the text was changed without explanation. Retroactively matching what Kushner said, the website no longer says states can rely on the stockpile, but now says it exists to “supplement” them.
“The Strategic National Stockpile's role is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies," the website read on Friday afternoon. "Many states have products stockpiled, as well. The supplies, medicines, and devices for life-saving care contained in the stockpile can be used as a short-term stopgap buffer when the immediate supply of adequate amounts of these materials may not be immediately available.”
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“Their supplies” are going to commercial distributors FIRST — BEFORE — they go to Hospitals.
Transcript:
“This product that were moving is primarily commercial product, that would enter the commercial system, and be distributed through financial business transactions, between hospitals and these distributors.”
Reporter: “That explains why states say they are bidding like they are on E-Bay. Because the supplies are going to the private sector, and then they have to go there, to get the supplies.”
“That’s normally how things work. I’m not here to disrupt a supply chain.”
“Look, these six to seven distributors have 6 to 700 warehouses. They have trucks to go to the hospital door everyday. Were bringing product in. They’re filling orders for hospitals, nursing homes, like normal. I’m putting volume into that system.”
“We have the data now. So we put together this data element, over the last 13 days, get the people in, look at the problem — build this. I am now seeing the truth about what’s in the supply chain — there’s been some abnormal behavior.”
That “volume provider” is Rear Admiral Polowczyk.
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[John] Polowczyk, who is director of fleet ordnance and supply at the U.S. Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., is helping to lead the effort to replenish supplies of personal protective equipment like face masks, gowns and gloves, as well as ventilators to treat patients who have developed severe respiratory problems from the virus.
He said the government is working with major U.S. suppliers to fill orders placed by hospitals and states.
"We are working to align transportation to product," Polowczyk said. The government is "scouring the globe and finding pockets of personal protective equipment that might not otherwise be in the U.S. hospital supply chain."
The government is delivering those products to medical supply companies, rather than delivering them directly to the facilities in need, Polowczyk said.
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www.politico.com — Apr 2, 2020
I don’t know about you — but something definitely doesn’t seem “normal” about this.
Did they “scour” those 500 ventilators “out from under” the Gov. of Colorado, just so they could be re-sold on “Supply Chain E-Bay” again ...
Only this time to the “most generous” bidder? Cha-Ching!
This is NOT how this is suppose to work.
At least until Team Jared retro-actively rewrote the HHS mission, to move the government surplus to supply chains — instead of to the hospitals and care providers, who most desperately need them.
PS. the current Pandemic would qualify as “an emergency” — as the original mission statement stipulated. No wonder, “the executive edits” were necessary, in the dead of night, in an amateurish attempt to paper-over their questionable actions.
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