White House: States uncoordinated
Some request far more aid than needed, it says
WASHINGTON — The White House said Monday that some states are requesting far more medical supplies than they need to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
As the crisis has spread across the U.S., several governors have complained that they have not been receiving the protective gear and lifesaving ventilators they have requested. On a call with governors Monday, Trump administration officials blamed miscalculations by the states for missteps in how supplies have been distributed.
“In some cases, people are requesting 10 times what they actually need,” White House adviser Jared Kushner said, according to audio obtained by The Associated Press.
He said the problem isn’t a lack of medical supplies in the country overall, but rather that they aren’t all where they need to be. He urged governors to speak with hospitals to gather data on “what they’re actually using” before requesting equipment.
Oregon and Washington, for example, have sent virtually all the ventilators they received from the federal stockpile to New York — which is currently the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak.
It’s not clear what criteria states are using to arrive at their requests, but data collected from the states by The Associated Press suggests the distribution system has been marked by extreme inconsistencies in those asks — and in the subsequent deliveries.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker objected to the idea that states may be asking for too much. He said the federal government had supplied 368,000 N95 masks and 693,000 gloves, but over the course of 10 days, he said, the state goes through 1.5 million N95 masks and 25 million gloves.
“To anyone who wants a response to some of the blame-shifting coming out of the White House, all I have to say is, look at the numbers,” Pritzker said.
By Monday, it seemed the federal government was trying to better align the shipments of supplies with demonstrated need.
In a written response to questions, FEMA said all states and territories had received some gear but that it was prioritizing “high transmission areas” based on population and not on quantities requested by the states.