By Jonathan Gu
With the rising influx of patients, the demand for treatment equipment has also risen. But with each state scrambling to acquire equipment, fraud and scams have infiltrated the market amidst the confusion. According to the Los Angeles Times, on March 26 the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU) announced to the Californian public that they had secured an order of 39 million N-95 masks from 3M, the largest US-based face mask producer. Large hospitals such as Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health agreed to join the deal while hospitals that withheld were heavily criticized. The deal was made with a Pittsburgh businessman who acted as a middleman between the Union and an Australian broker. The supplier requested a 40% down payment and further payment details later, but also stated that a portion of the masks were already in a warehouse in Georgia.
The FBI took note of this arrangement when scouting out medical protective gear orders to intercept for the Federal Emergency Management Agency under the Defense Production Act. According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), “The Defense Production Act – which allows the federal government to gain priority over protective equipment from private companies or state and local governments – was the purported justification for pursuing such measures”. Regardless, when the FBI went to retrieve the masks from the Georgian Warehouse there was no such thing. Additionally, 3M stated that they had only produced 20 million over the course of the year.
The OCCRP says that “While the White House has stated that it is using a data-driven approach to distribute medical equipment to where it is needed most, hospital officials and state-level politicians have voiced their frustration and confusion”. Jared Polis, Governor of Colorado, told CNN, "We're competing against any other state, every other country," he said. "Now we're even competing against the federal government,". The Defense Production Act is by no means a tyrannical order, but with each state fighting their own battles with the virus and trying to quell public panic, it is surely frustrating. The internal conflict of the nation relates to the course theme of balancing “hard power” and “soft power” to most effectively achieve its goals.
Discussion:
Would it be right to nationalize all related industries if it meant increased production and distribution of medical equipment? How would it affect business, the public, and the workers?
I dont think it would be right to nationalize medical industries in this time. During this time there has been a decrease in jobs and nationalizing the medical industry would only serve to worsen that. Forcing the industry to increase production would also require more workers, which is not avaliable during this time. Taking action to nationalize the medical industry would also cause public dissent as it would affect the workers lives and cause the industry to become disrupted. Authority in that area would be handed over to the government which would most likely cause disorder. In conclusion this would not be the correct way of action during these times as the corona virus servery limits output of medical supplies and forcing the medical industry to produce more would be harmful to the public and to industry itself.
ReplyDeleteJoseph chang
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