Vice President Mike Pence will travel to a General Motors plant in Kokomo, Indiana, on Thursday to celebrate the dramatic surge in production of ventilators as the fight against the coronavirus pandemic continues.
Exactly a month earlier, President Trump vowed the United States would move quickly to build more ventilators.
“Italy wants ventilators. Spain wants ventilators. Germany wants ventilators. They’re all calling for ventilators,” Trump remarked at a press briefing on March 27th. “Well, we’re going to make a lot of ventilators. And we’ll take care of our needs, but we’re also going to help other countries.”
Trump was right. As of April 28, FEMA, HHS, and the private sector have coordinated the delivery of 10,653 ventilators around the country, according to the White House, with many more new units flowing into the national stockpile.
“President Trump is procuring 100,000 ventilators in 100 days, three times more than the U.S. normally produces in a year,” a White House aide told Breitbart News. “No one else but the President could have facilitated the public-private partnership to do this, and under his leadership, we are truly experiencing an effective whole-of-America response.”
Using the Defense Production Act, the federal government has contracts with several companies, including Ford, General Motors, Philips, General Electric, Hill-Rom, Medtronic, ResMed, Vyaire, and Hamilton and Zoll.
By the end of 2020, the White House expects total production of 187,431 ventilators.
“We’re the king of ventilators,” Trump said last Friday at the White House. “Countries are calling, and they’re calling all the time now — can we help them with ventilators.”
The president has spoken to leaders of Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Honduras, El Salvador, and Ecuador promising to send them ventilators if needed, after America met the challenge of beating a ventilator shortage.
FEMA did not respond to a request for a number of how many ventilators have been sent to other countries.
Democrat governors like Andrew Cuomo of New York, who helped whip up fears the country was facing a dramatic ventilator shortage, are now sending ventilators to other states.
“You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die,” Cuomo said in a press conference in March demanding the federal government help him procure 30,000 to 40,000 ventilators for his state stockpile.
But the feared shortage did not happen. The rapid surge of ventilators now comes after the areas hit hardest by the coronavirus have already passed their peak.
It’s a moment of pride for the White House, proving America can still mobilize and manufacture needed machinery as they did in World War II.
“Thanks to President Trump’s historic mobilization efforts, no one who has needed a ventilator has gone without a ventilator, so much so that states like New York that had previously feared severe shortages are now sending ventilators to other states and back to the national stockpile,” a White House aide told Breitbart News.
Trump’s success at procuring ventilators has largely been ignored by the establishment media, especially after it became clear that there would be no national shortage. But Trump boasted Wednesday that America was leading the world in the procurement and distribution of ventilators.
“Now we have more ventilators than anyone thought was possible,” Trump said at the White House. “I mean, we’re doing a tremendous service for the world right now. We’re giving ventilators.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.