The Oversight Committee released documents suggesting dramatic shortfalls of equipment requested by states in FEMA’s Region III, which includes Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware and Washington, D.C. Collectively, the states and D.C. sought 5.2 million respirator masks, but received less than 10 percent of their requests. And they received less than 1 percent of their request for 194 million pairs of gloves. A request for 15,000 body bags went unfulfilled as well.
As of Monday, Washington D.C. had requested 1.1 million N95 respirators and received just 5,000, had requested 663,000 pairs of gloves and received just 5,000 and had requested 500,000 face shields and received none. Maryland requested 420,000 N95 respirators, 330,000 pairs of gloves and 181,000 face shields; it received 110,000 respirators, 140,000 pairs of gloves and 50,000 face shields.
Democrats on the panel also raised alarms about the Trump administration’s call for medical professionals to reuse protective equipment. The FEMA briefer, they said, indicated that „reusing this equipment increases the risk that health care providers will be infected with coronavirus“ but that it was important to do because of shortages.
At the March 30 briefing, FEMA officials also acknowledged that they knew in mid-January that the supply of N95 respirator masks would fall short, according to the readout.
“The president must act immediately to take all steps within his authority to get personal protective equipment and medical supplies to our nation’s front-line responders who are risking everything to save their fellow Americans,“ said the panel’s chair, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).
Source: politico.com
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