As medical providers plead for help, the White House won't detail a plan to route masks, ventilators to the front lines of the coronavirus fight.
Even as President Trump ordered General Motors Friday to begin manufacturing ventilators, the president’s broader strategy to get desperately needed medical supplies to hospitals and doctors across the country remained shrouded in uncertainty.
“We need ... supplies for healthcare workers and for communities,” said Rep. Katie Porter , who has been pressing the administration for details about its supply plan. “Unfortunately, the administration doesn’t appear to have done the work.”On Friday, Trump invoked the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law, to order General Motors to begin manufacturing ventilators at one of its auto plants after he had attacked the company on Twitter for not moving more quickly.
The White House, however, hasn’t detailed any broader strategy for addressing shortages of a host of other supplies, including respirator masks, gowns, face shields and other protective equipment.Nick Vyas, executive director for the Marshall’s Center for Global Supply Chain Management at USC, said that the administration should have stepped into the market last month to begin directing supplies. “The time to act was four weeks ago,” he said.
But the law also gives federal agencies the authority to place orders for critical materials and can give selected orders a higher priority than orders from private-sector companies or state and local governments.
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