Pats’ Kraft delivers with masks

With president Donald Trump saying the federal government is just a “backup” to states desperately trying to get medical supplies, governors have insisted “We need a Tom Brady.” This week, Brady’s old employer cut through a mountain of red tape to deliver a shipment of N95 masks from China.

The Wall Street Journal has the harrowing story of the Patriots’ airplane being used to transport the masks from Shenzhen to the United States, which played out over the last two weeks. Patriots owner Robert Kraft, the Chinese government and Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker ultimately teamed up to produce and ship 1.2 million masks to the U.S.

According to studies and federal health officials, between 3.5 billion and 7.3 billion of the masks could be needed, depending on the severity of the outbreak. The masks are critical to slowing the spread of the coronavirus, as they’re needed for healthcare workers to protect themselves when treating infected patients. The United States has a severe shortage of masks, with only 35 million in a federal stockpile at the beginning of last month.

Kraft and the Chinese government had to figure out a series of workarounds in order to procure the masks. Baker and “a collection of Chinese manufacturers” had made a deal for the order of masks, but couldn’t figure out how to transport them. In stepped Kraft, who got the Patriots’ plane prepared to ship masks and helped work around China’s requirement that Americans entering the country selfquarantine for 14 days.

The plane flew to Alaska, then Boston, the destination for 900,000 of the masks. Massachusetts is sending the other 300,000 to New York.