Manufacturers in the U.S. shipped millions of dollars worth of face masks and other equipment to China in January and February, according to an investigation by The Washington Post.
“In those two months, the value of protective masks and related items exported from the United States to China grew more than 1,000 percent compared with the same time last year — from $1.4 million to about $17.6 million, according to a Post analysis of customs categories which, according to research by Public Citizen, contain key PPE. Similarly, shipments of ventilators and protective garments jumped by triple digits.“
The Post writes during the early months of the year, there was no widespread sense of crisis in the White House. In fact, Secretary of Commerce Wilber Ross told Fox News on January 30 that the outbreak could “accelerate the return of jobs to North America” because companies would move factories away from impacted areas.“
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.) told the post, “Instead of taking steps to prepare, they ignored the advice of one expert after another. People right now, as we speak, are dying because there have been inadequate supplies of PPE.”
The CDC reports more than 9,000 U.S. healthcare workers have tested positive for COVID-19.
And some in the White House are saying China was deliberately attempting to corner the market around the world as it concealed and downplayed the danger posed by the outbreak, according to the Post. Now it appears the U.S. was a willing participant in helping China do just that.
