President Donald Trump brushed aside reports of a perilous need for hospital equipment, saying the nation would soon have more ventilators than it needs as he revealed he personally put in a huge order for hospital gear with the CEO of Walmart.
Trump was asked at the White House Wednesday about a report that the nation’s stockpile of equipment was depleted – a characterization he did not dispute.
‘It is because we’re sending it directly to hospitals,’ Trump said. ‘We don’t want it to come to the stockpile, because then we have to take it after it arrives and bring it to various states and hospitals.’
‘I just had a great talk today with Doug McMillon from Walmart and I gave him a very very big order to for gowns, for protective gear. For the doctors, for the nurses for everything and he’s actually very excited about it,’ Trump said.
‘I gave him a very very big order to for gowns,’ Trump said of his phone call with the CEO of Walmart
‘He’s the biggest purchaser of this kind of thing. I mean of anything probably in the world and he is very excited about it. And he said what size. I said it’s almost unlimited when you look at these hospitals. the amount that they order. you almost say how could they possibly use so much? whether it’s a masks or the protective gear. But we are supplying a tremendous amount and we just ordered a lot from Wallmart.
Trump said he has ‘taken this on personally.’
Outside of his own interventions, Trump is also continuing to urge governors to make their own purchases, even as some have howled that they are being out-bid by federal purchasers.
‘We asked the states to do this as much as possible. Many of the states have people that whether it’s that or clothing, they make clothing, lots of clothing, and many of the different states. We said see if you can get it directly for those manufacturers. Make a deal,’ Trump said.
Trump said he placed a ‘very big order’ with the company
Employees work making masks and gowns at NorthCape, an outdoor furniture upholstery manufacturer, in Alsip, Illinois, USA, 31 March 2020
Trump said the nation had a ‘pile of ventilators’ and the country would soon have more than it needs
Hospitals are desperate for more protective gear to combat the coronavirus
He said the administration is urging states to ‘use those local factories those local plants and have it made directly, ship it right into the hospitals.’
The president also spoke about ventilators, saying an additional 1,000 of the sophisticated machines have been transferred from the national stockpile – which would be about 10 per cent of the total.
‘We have almost 10,000 ventilators, which we need for flexibility and it sounds like a lot.’
‘As the scourge as this plague, as this virus moves … We don’t know yet whether we’re going to need it in Louisiana, in New York, you know, wherever it may be,’ Trump said.
‘We’re totally ready for it. We’re totally ready for it,’ Trump said, even as governors and public experts have warned of the potential for severe shortages.
‘We agreed to ship out over 1,000 today to different locations, he said, speaking to the need for flexibility.
Numerous companies have undertaken crash programs to begin manufacturing ventilators to meet a global need. But many of them won’t be coming online for weeks.
‘When you make one, it doesn’t get made in 15 minutes. It’s not a mask can get quickly. ‘It’s complex. It’s big. It’s expensive,’ Trump said.
‘Right now we have a nice pile of ventilators. We have a lot more coming in,’ Trump said.
‘We’re soon going to have more ventilators than we need,’ the president said.
‘Fairly soon,’ he said there would be ‘far more than we can use.’
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said his state may need 30,000-40,000 thousand of them as it confronts the pandemic. It leads the nation in infections and deaths.
Trump said he was ‘looking very seriously’ at starting construction on two Navy hospital ships, after the USNS Comfort arrived in New York and the Mercy is docked in Los Angeles.
The president’s statements about urgently needed equipment came a day after the administration said as many 100,000 people could die from the pandemic.