Name: Breed says SF's PPE orders have been diverted to France and 'confiscated' by FEMA
Brand: sfgate.com
SKU: sfgate-com-40
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Breed says SF's PPE orders have been diverted to France and 'confiscated' by FEMA

preview

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateSan Francisco Mayor London Breed explained the city's difficulties in acquiring personal protective equipment for local hospitals in a press conference Friday, saying city officials' orders for gowns and other safety items have been diverted to other countries and U.S. cities.San Francisco has successfully purchased 15 million pieces of PPE, and received others from the federal government or from companies like Flexport and Facebook, but it's not enough.“We’ve had issues of our orders being relocated by our suppliers in China,” she said. “For example, we had isolation gowns on their way to San Francisco and they were diverted to France. We’ve had situations when things we’ve ordered that have gone through Customs were confiscated by FEMA to be diverted to other locations. We know everyone is dealing with a serious challenge. Through Customs, we’ve had situations where those items have been taken and put out on the market for the highest bidder, putting cities against cities and states against states.”Breed's statement Friday echoed similar observations made by U.S. political leaders in recent weeks. She added that the fact she and other local and state governments are having to fight to secure PPE at this point of the coronavirus outbreak "blows my mind," but she nevertheless wanted residents to better understand why the process of buying such supplies has not been straightforward.“We wanted to make sure as you hear about some of these challenges, you’re aware of why they are challenges," she continued. "I know it seems as though it should be a lot simpler: We have the money to purchase the PPE, why can’t we purchase the PPE?”Breed's frustration is shared. Earlier this month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo criticized the current buying practices for acquiring such PPE and ventilators, saying U.S. states need a "nationwide buying consortium."“You can't have the states competing against the states, and then by the way, when the federal government goes out to buy the same equipment for their stockpile, now it's 50 states competing against the states and the federal government competing against the states,” Cuomo said. “This is not the way to do business."As a result of the bidding war, prices for necessary supplies are driven up — .The process has forced the city of San Francisco to improvise. As Breed put it, "We are getting as creative as we can to get the resources to support our city."MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on coronavirus .Alyssa Pereira is an SFGate digital editor. Email: | Twitter:

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateSan Francisco Mayor London Breed explained the city's difficulties in acquiring personal protective equipment for local hospitals in a press conference Friday, saying city officials' orders for gowns and other safety items have been diverted to other countries and U.S. cities.San Francisco has successfully purchased 15 million pieces of PPE, and received others from the federal government or from companies like Flexport and Facebook, but it's not enough.“We’ve had issues of our orders being relocated by our suppliers in China,”...

public

Alyssa Pereira

alyspereira

News. Culture. Sports. Opinion. All the journalism that matters from San Francisco & the Bay Area. Newsletters: http://sfgate.com/newsletters IG: http://instagram.com/sfgate

sfgate.com

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

Breed says SF's PPE orders have been diverted to France and 'confiscated' by FEMA

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS