Pols led us to wheeling and dealing for masks

First China, Patient Zero for the coronavirus that kills thousands of Americans and shut our country down, lies about it. They say we planted the virus in Wuhan.

Next the Chinese bill us for overpriced masks and other medical gear — that we used to make — so we can fight the deadly virus. And we pay through the nose for the stuff.

Then the Chinese act as though they are doing us a favor.

It is globalization at work. How dumb are we? Nevertheless, Gov. Charlie Baker is to be commended for the ingenuity and perseverance he showed in obtaining a planeload of some 1.2 million scarce N95 face masks from the Chinese last week.

It was a bright, positive and morale boosting development made possible by the humanitarian generosity of Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, who made his Patriots’ Boeing 767 available for the long flight to Shenzhen and back.

And the development came at a time when deaths from the virus, especially among the elderly in nursing homes and assisted living centers — as well as elsewhere — continued to grimly mount.

So, when the plane landed at Logan Airport last Thursday, an emotional Baker greeted the aircraft as though it were Air Force One without President Trump on board.

Baker, you see, has a problem with his fellow Republican in the White House.

The governor said he reached out to China after the Trump administration impounded an order for 3 million masks the state had placed with BJ’s Wholesale Club before Baker could get his hands on them.

“I just started reaching out to anybody and everybody I knew, trying to find some other path,” Baker told the Boston Globe.

That path led to China. But he needed a plane. He called his friend Jonathan Kraft, Robert Kraft’s son, who happens to be president of the Patriots but also chairman of the board of trustees at Massachusetts General Hospital. The Krafts came through.

It was a remarkable achievement. Baker and the Krafts pulled it off.

Baker, who has worked on the pandemic as hard as any governor in the country, was effusive in his praise of the Krafts, as well he should have been.

After all, how many businessmen do you know who would lend you their Boeing for an overnight in China and then pick up half of the $4 million cost for the masks?

It started out as a bureaucratic nightmare, both in the U.S. and in China. “I’ve never seen so much red tape in so many ways and obstacles that we had to overcome,” Robert Kraft told The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story.

What Kraft failed to mention, however, was the likelihood that he could call his friend in the White House — President Trump — and ask for help cutting through the red tape, which is something Baker could not or would not do.

But Trump got no mention from Baker at the ceremony, even though it is a given that the plane would never have been allowed to leave the U.S. for China, let alone fly back, without State Department or FAA approval, which means going through Trump.

Baker enthusiastically heaped praise on the Chinese, calling them “willing partners.”

He thanked Ambassador Huang Ping of the Chinese consulate in New York, the Chinese foreign affairs ministry in Beijing, the Chinese civil aviation administration and the Chinese customs office. But no mention of Trump.

Still, you must hand it to Baker for coming up with the idea of dealing directly with the Chinese in order to obtain the vital medical gear that is so badly needed.

It was just about the only good news around here that has come out of the battle against the deadly virus.

It is a shame, though, that politicians have put this great country in a position that it must go begging to the Chinese for medical equipment that used to be made in the U.S.A.

What Robert Kraft did is an important example of what wealthy humanitarian businessmen can do to help fellow Americans in a crisis when the government calls for help.

The next thing you know, fellow humanitarian and Boston Red Sox owner John Henry will follow Kraft’s example and propose using empty Fenway Park for a temporary medical facility for the expected overflow of hospital patients during the coronavirus pandemic.