The White House coronavirus task force is buying mask-cleaning machines promoted by Trump at a huge markup, possibly 10x the original cost, according to documents obtained by NBCNews But the machines appear to damage N95 masks...
WASHINGTON — It sounded like a great deal: The White House coronavirus task force would buy a defense company’s new cleaning machines to allow critical protective masks to be reused up to 20 times. And at $60 million for 60 machines on April 3, the price was right.
“It’s a fairy tale,” said one nurse in Connecticut who works at a hospital where masks are run through the Battelle decontamination system. “It’s being done because we don’t have the policies in place to do what needs to be done, and people are going to be hurt because of it.” White House officials have said often that the president is doing everything he can to protect the nation from the twin emergencies of the disease and its effect on the economy, and Trump and his lieutenants have routinely justified waiving safety and contracting rules by pointing to the need to speed supplies to the front lines of the fight. But critics say Trump has prioritized political ends at the expense of sound science and contracting practices that are designed to protect the public.
The pursuit of an all-of-the-above approach to finding medical solutions and equipment to slow the spread of the virus has perversely wasted time, money and opportunity, according to critics within the administration who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity because they fear losing their jobs.
On March 29, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, slammed the Food and Drug Administration for limiting a waiver of safety regulations for Battelle, which is based in his state. DeWine had lobbied heavily for the waiver in the first place and was upset that the use of Battelle machines was going to be restricted.
Spokespeople for Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, who chairs the task force, declined to answer any of NBC News’ questions about the waiver for Battelle, the federal contract and the safety of masks cleaned by the company’s machines. But with the newly revised waiver in hand, Battelle worked with the task force so it could sell its machines to the government.
On May 6, Trump told a group of nurses at the White House that reports of PPE shortages are “fake news,” and on May 14, he said he was winding down an airlift program that brought equipment into the U.S. from overseas “because we’re very stocked up.” Trump clearly wanted the mask sanitizers to be deployed rapidly. It had only been 10 days since he tweeted his support for the FDA waiver, which allowed masks cleaned by the machines to be used in health care facilities and freed the company from existing federal quality-assurance regulations.
Battelle has performed countless billions of dollars worth of work for the federal government since its participation in the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb. Much of its work is classified because the company manages eight nuclear labs for the Department of Energy. Battelle also offers private-sector customers in various industries a wide variety of services, including assisting with FDA approval for e-cigarettes.
For example, Dr. Rick Bright, who was the head of the federal agency in charge of developing vaccines, testified before Congress last Thursday after filing a whistleblower complaint alleging he was moved from his position in retaliation for objecting to the president’s insistence on purchasing hydroxychloroquine.
Bartrum was outgunned. The task force board — FEMA Director Pete Gaynor and HHS Department Assistant Secretaries Robert Kadlec and Brett Giroir — sided with Polowczyk’s team and ordered the purchase to move forward, according to the summary. Retired Adm. Ken Carodine, who worked on logistics at the Pentagon, said in a telephone interview that defense-contracting officials frequently negotiate with companies that bid for work at one price and then jack up the total almost overnight.
“Since the exposure and testing procedures are different, it is difficult to compare the results, but I think the quantitative testing on people reflects a closer to ‘real world’ situation,” Judson said in an email to NBC News. “Health care workers such as myself may wear these masks for long periods of time, and degradation is seen as masks are repeatedly donned and doffed.”
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