The federal government’s inability to get the states what they need is of course tied into the sheer magnitude of the coronavirus outbreak and its demand for more medical supplies than are readily available—but there is, of course, also some bureaucratic incompetence at play. CNN reported Tuesday that though the Pentagon has committed 2,000 ventilators to FEMA and the Department of Health and Human Services, the essential devices are currently just sitting around unused because FEMA and HHS “have not asked for them or provided a shipping location.” Lt. Gen. Giovanni Tuck told CNN that there are currently 1,000 ventilators that could be shipped immediately and 1,000 more that could be ready within days, but “we haven’t provided any, because as of last night, we were asked to just hold on the ones that we have, and then we will push them when they’re ready for them.” The Department of Defense is also currently sitting on three million N-95 respirator masks that the HHS hasn’t yet given an order for, as well as 16 labs capable of testing for the coronavirus. The HHS’s failure to deploy the ventilators comes as hard-hit states like New York, New Jersey, and Louisiana are already reaching their ventilator capacity—though Trump has repeatedly played down the shortage. “Some people, frankly, think they need them and they don’t need them,” Trump said Tuesday when asked about state requests for ventilators.
Of course, not all states are facing such a dire lack of federal assistance. The Washington Post reports that Trump-friendly Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has received 100 percent of his first two federal requests, and Republican-led states like Oklahoma and Kentucky have similarly received even more resources than requested. Other states, meanwhile, receive only a small fraction of what they need. While the Post notes that “there’s no direct evidence that Republican states are receiving more favorable treatment overall,” and GOP-led states like Georgia are facing federal shortages as well, the implication is clear: the federal government is tending to prioritize the states that like Trump the most. “It’s a two-way street,” Trump told Fox News last week about governors’ requests for supplies. “They have to treat us well, also. They can’t say, ‘Oh, gee, we should get this, we should get that.’” In Florida’s case, Trump diverting an adequate supply of resources there is also, naturally, a way to help shore up his reelection bid. “The president knows Florida is so important for his reelection,” one White House official told the Post. “He pays close attention to what Florida wants.” For states without a cozy relationship with Trump or key electoral votes, then, state officials are faced with the need to flatter a president whose handling of the coronavirus outbreak has, in many ways, made the situation worse—or risk the lives of their constituents. One senior Democratic gubernatorial aide told the Post that Trump has been receptive to requests and has not threatened officials if they don’t praise him—“but we watch the news, we see what he says about people who criticize him.”
The acute need for medical supplies will only continue to get worse in the coming weeks, as the outbreak escalates and new coronavirus hotspots emerge in regions beyond current hard-hit areas like New York and New Jersey. Whether the federal government will step up its game and make things easier for the states remains to be seen—but even if they do, it still may not be enough. The National Strategic Stockpile only has 12,700 ventilators (which would supplement 160,000 existing ventilators already in U.S. hospitals), while the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security estimated that as many as 740,000 could ultimately be needed to combat the pandemic. Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont told the New York Times Tuesday that it was “disturbing” to see that the national stockpile of medical supplies is already dwindling as the outbreak ramps up. “We are on our own,” Lamont said.
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