There’s giving with one hand and taking with the other.
Then there’s the Trump administration, which goes one better — or worse.
After telling governors early in the coronavirus crisis that they were on their own when it comes to securing protective equipment for first responders who are tending to coronavirus patients, the Trump administration not only has been consistent in its shabby treatment — Florida was an exception early on — it has then actively prevented masks, ventilators and other desperately needed equipment from getting to the states and the people who need them most.
According to South Florida station WLRN, 1 million coveted N95 face masks, the gold standard in protecting people who come in contact with the infected, that were destined for Miami-Dade County were “taken” by the federal government. Frank Rollason, Miami-Dade County’s head of emergency management, had another word for it, “hijacked” — “because that’s what happened.”
OUTRAGEOUS SEIZURE
A statement from the Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue Department, which includes emergency management, said that the masks “were in the process of being secured when the vendor notified MDFR that the product was no longer available.”
The vendor was told that the federal government, too, was looking to secure a million masks. So, what the heck? Let’s take the ones going to Miami-Dade, went the government’s thinking, apparently. The county is only Florida’s epicenter for the coronavirus with more than 10,000 confirmed cases, out the state’s almost 30,000.
It’s an outrage, given that many states have had to jumps through hoops to finagle masks and other vital equipment by almost any means possible. Outrageous, but, unfortunately, not uncommon. States across the country have been in the oddest competition with the federal government, which has confiscated masks from Massachusetts, testing supplies from states in the Northwest and thermometers from, again, Florida.
And states have gotten no clear answers about how, or even if, the federal government is redistributing the materials, stockpiling them or selling them at inflated prices.
NURSES PROTEST IN D.C.
The depravity of the deadly situation, actually encouraged by our federal government, was on full view Tuesday in Washington, D.C. Nurses from across the country, the people we love to hail as heroes, converged in front of the White House and read aloud the names of their peers, dead from the virus in the course of keeping others alive. The lack of personal protective equipment is as culpable for their deaths as is the virus itself.
Various federal agencies swear supplies are being redistributed equitably. If so, they should prove it. And who’s confronting the Trump administration on Florida’s behalf? Gov. Ron DeSantis is a lost cause here. When he should be making to most of his close relationship with the president, he instead goes along to get along with his benefactor in White House. That leaves U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, who have been talking sense about the need for more testing — before wide portions of the economy come back online.
But enhanced testing will mean more patients to be cared for. If we fail to take care of the medical caretakers, then simply doing their jobs will continue to be a potential death sentence.
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