The federal government has intervened in a $1 billion deal between the State of California and a Chinese company to make hundreds of millions of masks per month due to concerns over safety.
A month ago, as Breitbart News reported, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC that the state would buy 200 million masks per month to help in the fight against the coronavirus.
Newsom also told the public that California would be sourcing other emergency medical supplies from China. “One billion gloves, 500 million N95 masks, 200 million shields … We’re going to be sending chartered flights from China into the state of California already working with some of the largest logistics firms in the world with FedEx and UPS to do just that,” he promised, according to San Francisco ABC affiliate KGO-7.
But now, the San Francisco Chronicle reports, delivery of the masks by be delayed because of concerns by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health that the Chinese products may not meet American standards:
Delivery of many of the medical masks that Gov. Gavin Newsom secured in a nearly $1 billion deal with a Chinese company has been delayed because a federal agency has yet to certify they meet safety standards, according to documents released Wednesday night.
The situation led California to seek repayment of half the $495 million that it paid upfront to manufacturer BYD for N95 particulate-filtering respirators intended to protect medical workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. It will have to pay the money if and when the company wins federal approval for the masks.
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California’s deal with BYD had already drawn scrutiny over the company’s reported track record of selling defective nonmedical products.
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State officials had previously refused to release the BYD contract to lawmakers and journalists. They said doing so before any masks arrived could jeopardize California’s chances of receiving the equipment, given the fierce competition worldwide for N95 and surgical masks.
Newsom announced earlier this week that some businesses would be allowed to open on Friday, as the state entered “Phase Two” of his recovery plan. One mall opened in Yuba City, north of Sacramento, on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump has urged companies to move manufacturing processes and supply chains for essential medicines and medical supplies from China back to the United States.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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