U.S. State Department has facilitated the transportation of nearly 17.8 tons of medical supplies

[ffr]

February 7, 2020

This week the State Department has facilitated the transportation of nearly 17.8 tons of donated medical supplies to the Chinese people, including masks, gowns, gauze, respirators, and other vital materials. These donations are a testament to the generosity of the American people. - Office of SECRETARY MICHAEL R. POMPEO, U.S. State Department, Embassy in China

March 28, 2020
Trump sends Florida more PPE than requested while he shorts blue states
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213193432

Trump Proves He is More Monstrous Every Day
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213194278

[jberryhill]

1. That first link is about facilitating the export of private donations

What is it intended to prove in this context?

Should those donors have been stopped somehow?

[ffr]

3. Maybe it's not so obvious to you, so let me quote the U.S. State Department

Read the three headings, then read this.

Today, the United States government is announcing it is prepared to spend up to $100 million in existing funds to assist China and other impacted countries, both directly and through multilateral organizations, to contain and combat the COVID-19. This commitment – along with the hundreds of millions generously donated by the American private sector – demonstrates strong U.S. leadership in response to the outbreak.
<snip>

The United States is and will remain the world’s most generous donor. We encourage the rest of the world to match our commitment. Working together, we can have a profound impact to contain this growing threat.

[stopdiggin]

4. all of which would be a fairly normal response to an international disaster

all of which I would heartily approve of (then and current date).
and none of which would have impeded in any way a proper, targeted and timely response to the contagion here in the U.S.

[ffr]

7. Exactly! So why was America left short of these items, instead of them being replaced.

No forethought on IMPotus's part.

[jberryhill]

12. Because they were privately donated

The State Department press release is a reference to this. Look at the date:


https://www.directrelief.org/2020/02/protective-gear-bound-for-cities-in-china-with-most-coronavirus-patients/

U.S. Private Sector Backing China’s Coronavirus Fight
FEBRUARY 6, 2020

With the backing of many U.S. private sector companies and foundations, Direct Relief today sent a major shipment of personal protective gear to Chinese hospitals at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, including 250,000 N95 masks and other requested items.

Since Jan. 27, Direct Relief has sent to hospitals in China a total of 572,000 N95 and surgical masks.

The recipients in China include the largest hospitals in the three cities with the highest reported incidence of coronavirus—Wuhan, Xiaogan and Huanggang. The three cities are all located in Hubei Province, where more than 19,000 cases of novel coronavirus have been reported. Items in Thursday’s shipments will also be directed to local agencies in neighboring Chongqing.

A number of prominent U.S. private sector companies and foundations are channeling their China assistance through Direct Relief. The HP Foundation on Monday donated $1 million to the effort, with other large cash donations coming from Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Grandstream Networks. 3M and Amazon have donated large quantities of personal protective gear.

----------


By "facilitating" it, the State Department merely waived export red tape. The equipment referred to in your first link was privately donated.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. So he's outbidding the state governors to send the supplies abroad?

[ffr]

9. This was before the bidding wars that he created.

The U.S. govt was shipping off tons of stored PPE in February, then again in March to other countries. And I have no real problem with that, as those other countries desperately needed that equipment too. But my problem comes about, why weren't those supplies restocked knowing full well that if Covid-19 turned into a pandemic, our own simulations showed that medical professionals here in the U.S. would experience shortfalls.

Was it deliberate to drive the price up and thus for people with political power to manipulate supply to profit from? And does that mean that republicans are willing to profit off of other peoples suffering and death?

[Baitball Blogger]

11. By putting it in the State governor's hands he might have thought he

was buying himself time for his oversight. But it only made everything worse.

[jberryhill]

13. No

The equipment was all privately donated. The State Department "facilitated transport" by cutting red tape for those private exports to proceed.

[Baitball Blogger]

17. Curiouser and curiouser.

[jberryhill]

20. You want even curioser?

This thing keeps popping up like a weed:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=13198610

[Baitball Blogger]

21. There was a reason this country fell short of supplies, right when we needed them.

It makes me sick to see so many having to sew masks for our health workers, when I know for a fact that supplies in this country for masks were stripped early. The Lowes guy told me that a Chinese man came and purchased 30,000 boxes. What I didn't know was that the U.S. government was facilitating the shipment of supplies to China at the same time! Trump's lack of understanding of the peril we were in with this virus hit us on two levels. First, he gave a nod to allowing us to be stripped of the private market. And second, he was hesitant to use the power of the government to force private corporations to make more to fill the demand!!

Fuck! We were hit

[jberryhill]

24. Straight out of the Alex Jones show

"We received a tip from a caller to the Alex Jones Show who said that he saw two men buying every respirator mask in stock at Home Depot in Arizona. Infowars Reporter Harrison Smith visited a Home Depot in Austin only to discover that the same thing is occurring there as well. Who is going around buying up respirator masks in America? And why?

https://www. NotGonnaLinkItHere .com"

Cool story, bro.

[Baitball Blogger]

25. I think it's obvious that they were going to China to meet the need.

It's not a conspiracy theory. It's just mismanagement.

[jberryhill]

6. So what?

The supplies in question were privately donated, which is why the first paragraph - the one you omitted - refers to having “facilitated” the shipment of them.

But, since you intentionally left it out, I’m pretty sure you did read it.

In any event, this was hashed out in the thread you duplicated:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=13193812

Must be some social media talking point.

[ffr]

8. ??? Please read what is written. Your rebuttal doesn't adress my OP or rebuttal to your rebuttal.

Subject of sentence 1) Today, the United States government is announcing it is prepared to spend up to $100 million in existing funds to assist China and other impacted countries, both directly and through multilateral organizations, to contain and combat the novel coronavirus.

^^^ Did you read and comprehend that? "announcing it", IT is the United States government. Private sector is not implied or said. That is what is addressed in the idea of that sentence and idea of the U.S. govt speing $100M in existing funds stands on its own.

...the next sentence is subject 2, containing "along with", meaning in addition to subject 1:
Subject of sentence 2) This commitment – along with the hundreds of millions generously donated by the American private sector – demonstrates strong U.S. leadership in response to the outbreak. - U.S. Embassy, China

I leave nothing out, so pardon me for using your own argument against you. You said in your rebuttals,
"That first link is about facilitating the export of private donations"
"The supplies in question were privately donated."

Your arguments are factually incorrect. Please do not rebut my argument again with another tripling down, repeating what you've already said. I will entertain your further rebuttals, but only so much as they pertain to rebutting my original post, which you have yet to effectively address.

I'll continue with other background news most DU'ers would already be aware of.

FACT: The U.S. government shipped off badly needed PPE out of the U.S. to another country in February when our own Covid-19 cases were just beginning to multiply
FACT: We're now learning that the U.S. government also made another shipment of tons of PPE in March out of the country when it was clear from NSC playbook results performed last Fall that our medical personnel would experience shortages of badly needed PPE. And that's without making two shipments prior to the NSC mock pandemic.

[jberryhill]

10. The equipment was donated

"This week the State Department has facilitated the transportation of nearly 17.8 tons of donated medical supplies to the Chinese people..."

Are you suggesting the US government should have seized that donated equipment?

Here's an example of the private efforts at that time, which were "facilitated"...

https://komonews.com/news/local/boeing-donating-250000-medical-masks-to-battle-coronavirus-in-china

Boeing donating 250,000 medical masks to battle coronavirus in China
January 29th 20

The world's largest aerospace company announced a donation Wednesday of 250,000 medical masks to help address supply shortages in China while the country is battling the coronavirus outbreak.

Boeing said its donation of medical-grade respiratory masks will be given to health officials in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, and Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province. Prior to its recent donation Boeing has provided 25,000 medical masks for employees working in the region.

https://www.directrelief.org/2020/02/protective-gear-bound-for-cities-in-china-with-most-coronavirus-patients/

U.S. Private Sector Backing China’s Coronavirus Fight
FEBRUARY 6, 2020

With the backing of many U.S. private sector companies and foundations, Direct Relief today sent a major shipment of personal protective gear to Chinese hospitals at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, including 250,000 N95 masks and other requested items.

Since Jan. 27, Direct Relief has sent to hospitals in China a total of 572,000 N95 and surgical masks.

The recipients in China include the largest hospitals in the three cities with the highest reported incidence of coronavirus—Wuhan, Xiaogan and Huanggang. The three cities are all located in Hubei Province, where more than 19,000 cases of novel coronavirus have been reported. Items in Thursday’s shipments will also be directed to local agencies in neighboring Chongqing.

A number of prominent U.S. private sector companies and foundations are channeling their China assistance through Direct Relief. The HP Foundation on Monday donated $1 million to the effort, with other large cash donations coming from Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Grandstream Networks. 3M and Amazon have donated large quantities of personal protective gear.

----------


By "facilitating" it, the State Department merely waived export red tape. The equipment referred to in your first link was privately donated.




You see the stuff in that picture? That's not US government stock in the first place. Those are the supplies in question.

You see the date on the State Dept. press release you posted?

You see how that all matches up?

You are simply wrong.

Trump has fucked up a lot here, but this one is a swing and a miss.

[ffr]

15. Facepalm. So I see you left out PRIVATE(LY). Your third post is a diversionary fallacy.

jberryhill post 1: "That first link is about facilitating the export of private donations"
jberryhill post 2: "The supplies in question were privately donated."
jberryhill post 3: "The equipment was donated"

So what are you saying, that you now agree with my OP? Good. I'm glad we're both on the same page.

U.S. State Department has facilitated the transportation of nearly 17.8 tons of medical supplies
February 7, 2020

This week the State Department has facilitated the transportation of nearly 17.8 tons of donated medical supplies to the Chinese people, including masks, gowns, gauze, respirators, and other vital materials. These donations are a testament to the generosity of the American people. - Office of SECRETARY MICHAEL R. POMPEO, U.S. State Department, Embassy in China


March 28, 2020
Trump sends Florida more PPE than requested while he shorts blue states
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213193432

Trump Proves He is More Monstrous Every Day
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213194278

[jberryhill]

16. So your point is that Trump is a monster because private donors sent equipment to China

And the US government didn't confiscate it or something?

Up above you ask, "why was America left short of these items, instead of them being replaced."

Well, probably because the US government doesn't go around "replacing" stuff that private charitable organizations send overseas.

Yeah, the equipment was privately donated. That's pretty damned obvious from the article I posted about it, highlighting the private donors.

No, I didn't repeat the same adjective every time, but am really straining to understand your apparent point that (a) the government was somehow supposed to replace things that were sent to China by private donors, or (b) I'm somehow trying to hide that fact by linking to two articles that identifies the private donors and includes a picture of the privately donated stuff with "Fedex cares" labels on it.

[Baitball Blogger]

18. Just out of curiousity, where did those private corporations purchase those supplies?

[jberryhill]

19. Well, hmmmm

https://www.directrelief.org/2020/02/protective-gear-bound-for-cities-in-china-with-most-coronavirus-patients/

"3M and Amazon have donated large quantities of personal protective gear."

3M, of course, manufactures them. One might expect the largest retailer on earth to have quite a few things around in their immense inventory system.

A similar question was asked and answered a couple of times on DU in the the past few weeks, concerning why some companies have large stockpiles of PPE in the first place.

https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-companies-like-facebook-had-n95-masks-to-donate-2020-3

Why companies like Goldman Sachs, Apple, and Facebook had all of those N95 masks to donate in the first place

What's kind of goofy is that some of this could have simply been a virtual 'wash' exchange among private donors, since...

https://nypost.com/2020/03/16/alibaba-billionaire-jack-ma-donates-a-million-masks-500k-coronavirus-testing-kits-to-us/

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce colossus Alibaba, announced that the first shipment of his donated face masks and coronavirus testing kits was en route to the US.

“The first shipment of masks and coronavirus test kits to the US is taking off from Shanghai. All the best to our friends in America,” Ma said on Twitter in his first message on the social media platform.

His Ma Foundation earlier said 500,000 testing kits and 1 million face masks would be donated to the US, CNN reported.

-----------------

The Trump administration, other than to the extent necessary to "facilitate" transport by clearing these things through customs and not assessing tariffs, licenses, etc. has fuck-all to do with these private efforts.

[TexasBushwhacker]

22. Nevertheless, he should have had the foresight that the PPE would be needed HERE n/t

[jberryhill]

23. Who are you talking about?

Private donors and corporations sent stuff to China back in February. There is nothing particularly remarkable about that, other than the apparent and unshakeable belief among some that the president is somehow empowered to stop people and companies from donating whatever the fuck they want to whomever the fuck they want.

[Cha]

2. I hope people are paying attention to this.

Thanks, ffr

[GoCubsGo]

14. Fucking infuriating.

I wish I could say what I am thinking right now.

[Kingofalldems]

26. Kick this for the gatekeepers.

[defacto7]

27. Kick