The Trump administration haphazardly gave away millions of Covid-19 masks -- to schools, broadcasters
By HELEN BRANSWELL @HelenBranswell, KATE SHERIDAN @sheridan_kate, CASEY ROSS @caseymross, and ANDREW JOSEPH @DrewQJoseph
AUGUST 13, 2020
Hundreds of millions of cloth face masks shipped to U.S. agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private companies by the Trump administration appear to have been allocated in a haphazard fashion, raising questions about inequitable distribution in the effort to beat back the Covid-19 pandemic.
Under the $675 million program, businesses and other entities were provided with supplies of the free, reusable masks that in some cases far exceeded their needs, according to a STAT review of an administration document identifying more than 60,000 recipients. A charter school with roughly 140 students in Florida, for instance, received 37,500 masks. In other cases, corporations with vast resources, including a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, also received tens of thousands of the masks.
In all, 650 million masks were ordered from U.S. underwear and apparel manufacturers as part of the program; that number of masks would have been enough to give almost every American two apiece.
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At least one organization listed as having been given masks is still waiting to receive them. The public works department in Carson City, Nev., applied for masks on the advice of the Solid Waste Association of North America, a trade group. The HHS document suggests the department has received 12,000 masks, but director Darren Schulz said he was still waiting.
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https://www.statnews.com/2020/08/13/the-trump-administration-haphazardly-gave-away-millions-of-masks-to-schools-broadcasters-and-fortune-500-companies/
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