The Trump administration’s incompetence and indifference in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic has been nothing short of criminal. First they claimed that the virus was a hoax and ignored all warnings. Then, when they couldn’t deny the reality of the pandemic, have been slow to roll out any sort of aid, and made what little was available contingent on governors sucking up to Trump.

As the number of infected grows exponentially, doctors, nurses, and health care workers find themselves suffering from a dangerous shortage of PPE (personal protective equipment) like masks, respirators, and gloves. America, which claims to be the richest country in the world, is seeing its first line of defense reusing single-use masks and donning trash bags in a desperate effort to stay protected.

Which has caused many of us to wonder: why was there no emergency stockpile of PPE? How could we have been so unprepared for this?

We were prepared. We had tons of stockpiles of medical equipment set aside for just such a crisis. But Trump and his administration sent all of our supplies to China. A press statement from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on February 7th reads, “This week the State Department has facilitated the transportation of nearly 17.8 tons of donated medical supplies to the Chinese people, including masks, gowns, gauze, respirators, and other vital materials. These donations are a testament to the generosity of the American people.”

We have coordinated with U.S. organizations to transport more humanitarian relief to people in Wuhan. Personal protective equipment and other medical supplies donated by these organizations can help save lives in #China and help protect people from the #coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/57SN2TXfLP

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) February 7, 2020

The stockpile was part of the Obama administration’s emergency preparation response, which Trump disbanded and defunded. He of course blames Obama for the shortage, as he does with everything else. Trump is incapable of taking responsibility, and his negligence will cause an untold number of deaths.

Now, governors are competing with the federal government, each other, and foreign countries to buy PPE supplies. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker described the situation in an interview with NBC News saying, “And so what’s happening too, not just on ventilators but on all the PPE that we need, prices are being ratcheted up and we’re competing against each other on what should be a national crisis where we should be coming together and the federal government should be leading, helping us.”

He continued, “But we need ventilators, we need N95 masks. The federal government isn’t providing most of that to the states. We’re out there competing against each other – it shouldn’t work that way.”

And it’s not simply giving away our supplies to China that is negligent. It was Trump’s continued denial of the outbreak that prevented the government from mobilizing efforts to replenish our stock of PPE, because Trump cared more about the appearance of a health country than our actual health.

He gave up millions of supplies and didn’t replace them because he was worried about his poll numbers and his precious stock market.

Sending medical supplies to China early on was act of compassion. I’m not going to criticize him for being altruistic. The problem is what he did afterwards just downplaying the coronavirus and not replenishing our stockpile for Americans. That is incompetent and irresponsible.

— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) March 29, 2020

Companies like 3M are projected to make 100 million N-95 masks per month, which is up to 1.2 billion masks per year. That’s more than enough not only for every doctor but for every American. Imagine if Trump notified them in February to do this. We would’ve never had a shortage.

— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) March 29, 2020

Every democrat running for office should be hammering these facts in every debate, every interview, and every Op-Ed. Of all the damage Trump and his cronies have done to this country, this will by far be the deadliest.

(via NBC News, image: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

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