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“The notion of the federal stockpile is that it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use.”
That was White House senior advisor Jared Kushner during Thursday night’s coronavirus task force briefing, in response to being asked about states that have reported shortages of medical supplies such as face masks and gloves during the COVID-19 outbreak.
He continued, “When you have governors saying that the federal government hasn’t given them what they need, I would encourage you to ask them, have you looked within your state to make sure you haven’t been able to find the resources?”
These remarks by the president’s son-in-law drew ridicule and scorn on social media overnight Thursday into Friday morning, with phrases such as “our stockpile” and hashtags such as #KushnerIsAnIdiot trending on Twitter TWTR, +0.43% as many lawmakers pointed out that the Strategic National Stockpile is, in fact, intended for the states, and not federal employees.
Former White House ethics chief Walter Shaub, who served under President Obama and President Trump, tweeted that, “It is for the American people … as the federal government’s OWN strategic national stockpile website assures us!”
Some readers have pointed out that the language on the federal website was changed after Kushner comments, however. On Thursday night, it read: “Strategic National Stockpile is the nation’s largest supply of life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out.”
It continued, “When state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency.”
But today, the federal website reads: “The Strategic National Stockpile’s role is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies. Many states have products stockpiled, as well. The supplies, medicines, and devices for life-saving care contained in the stockpile can be used as a short-term stopgap buffer when the immediate supply of adequate amounts of these materials may not be immediately available.”
And states have indeed reported critical shortages of medical supplies at this time.
The House Oversight Committee released FEMA documents Thursday that featured medical equipment requests submitted by mid-Atlantic states, including Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. And these states received just a fraction of the medical equipment that they have asked for:
- Requested 5.2 million N95 masks; received 445,000 (less than 10%)
- Requested 194 million pairs of gloves; received 991,000 (less than 1%)
- Requested 15,000 body bags; received none (0%)
The report also warned that the nation’s critical shortage of ventilators is expected to get worse, adding a FEMA warning that most of the 100,000 ventilators promised by President Trump will not be available until late June at the earliest.
Most Americans are turning to their local and state governments for COVID-19 guidance, rather than the federal government, according to an Associated Press/NORC poll conducted between March 26-29. It found that 57% of Americans approved of their state government’s coronavirus response, compared with 44% who approved of Trump’s response, and 38% who approved of the federal government’s response.
COVID-19 has sickened at least 245,658 Americans as of Friday morning, including more than 100,000 in New York, and led to at least 6,068 U.S. deaths. Worldwide, cases have topped 1 million, with 55,132 deaths and counting.
