Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker was overcome with emotion while thanking Patriots owner Robert Kraft for arranging a shipment of more than 1 million N95 masks this week after it was revealed the federal government seized a previous order bound for the Bay State.
Baker held a news conference at Logan Airport in Boston on Thursday just a few hundred feet away from the Patriots team plane after it delivered the masks on a specially chartered flight from China.
In his remarks, Baker thanked Kraft’s son, Patriots President Jonathan Kraft, who was standing a few feet behind him near the airport tarmac while the governor addressed the media.
Massachusetts and other states hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic have struggled to get critically needed supplies for health care workers, including masks, gowns, and other protective equipment.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker got emotional on Thursday as he welcomed a shipment of 1.2million N95 masks during a news conference at Boston’s Logan Airport
He thanked Jonathan Kraft (seen far right), the son of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, after the Patriots arranged for their team plane to transport the masks from China
A New England Patriots Boeing 767-300 jet with a shipment of over one million N95 masks from China, which will be used in Boston and New York to help fight the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), arrived at Logan Airport in Boston on Thursday
‘Jonathan,’ the governor said before pausing. He became visibly emotional and appeared to be fighting back tears as he struggled to continue the news conference.
‘Honestly, we can’t thank you and your dad and your family enough for answering the call and helping up make this happen,’ the Republican governor said.
‘And for the many, many dedicated front line workers across this state who are battling COVID-19, on behalf of the people of Massachusetts every single day, this gear will make an enormous difference.’
The next day, Baker explained his emotional reaction by recalling that the shipment which arrived on Thursday was made after a previous order of some 3 million masks headed for Massachusetts was confiscated by the federal government.
‘We have been chasing personal protective equipment and especially N95 masks basically as much as we’ve been awake for the past few weeks,’ the governor told Boston.com.
Baker said the state had put in an order for masks with BJ’s Wholesale Club.
The order landed in the Port of New York and New Jersey, but Marylou Sudders, the Massachusetts secretary of health and human services, told The Boston Globe that she believes it was impounded by customs officials on March 18.
‘Force majeure,’ Sudders said on Friday, which translated into ‘superior force.’
‘Force majeure’ is a legal term which is enforced whenever a major crisis or emergency compels a government to cancel existing obligations between certain parties.
The governor praised Jonathan Kraft (seen above at Logan Airport on Thursday) and his father for their generosity
Massachusetts officials said they arranged the shipment with the Patriots after the federal government seized a previous order of millions of masks which were impounded by customs officials at the Port of New York and New Jersey in Elizabeth, New Jersey (above) last month
Sudders said she believes customs officials confiscated the shipments and placed it in the federal stockpile.
‘They take what we order,’ Sudders said, referring to the Trump administration.
Baker said this state of affairs has left him wondering whether any of the orders put in by his administration will ever come through.
‘There’s an undeniable fact in all of this,’ Baker said.
‘Which is that medical personnel, first responders, and emergency management personnel are not just putting themselves in harm’s way with the amount of close contact that they have with potential COVID cases every day, but they know that they are also putting their family members in harm’s way because they are putting themselves in harm’s way.’
The governor added: ‘The fear of everyone working on the front lines, he said, is not for themselves, but of infecting their loved ones.
‘Their greatest fear is about infecting a family member – a grandmother, a father, a neighbor, a child.
‘That’s who they talk about. They don’t talk about getting it themselves because they’re worried about what it might mean for them.
‘They talk about it because they’re worried about what it might mean for some other loved one.
‘You hear enough of those stories, and you get pretty bent about your inability to help.
‘And so when we finally managed to land the plane yesterday, that was a really big deal.’
As of Saturday afternoon, there have been 11,736 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts.
Of those, 1,068 people have been hospitalized. Two-hundred and sixteen people have died.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft sends 300,000 N95 masks to New York on a team truck after flying in 1.2million from China to address shortages in Massachusetts and Rhode Island
For perhaps the first time in history the Patriots logo is a welcome sight in New York on Friday as 300,000 N95 medical masks arrived to the city’s healthcare workers on a team truck after owner Robert Kraft flew 1.2 million masks in from China to address shortages in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The 300,000 masks were delivered to Manhattan’s Javits Center, which has been converted into a hospital for people infected with COVID-19.
The masks have been in short supply amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as states along with the federal government have been trying to outbid each other for the sorely needed medical supplies.
For perhaps the first time in history the Patriots logo is a welcome sight in New York on Friday as 300,000 N95 medical masks were shipped to healthcare workers on a team truck after owner Robert Kraft flew 1.2 million masks in from China to address shortages in Massachusetts and Rhode Island
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft sent 300,000 N95 masks to New York. New York Governor Mario Cuomo and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker have complained that states are being forced to outbid each other for N95 masks, as well as other medical equipment, resulting in higher prices and shorter supplies
Masks donated by the New England Patriots owner arrive under police escort to the Javits Center, New York, which is expected to start taking COVID-19 patients later today
On Thursday the The Wall Street Journal first reported the shipment, which was flown in Shenzen, China and cost Kraft and the state of Massachusetts around $2million apiece.
Originally they ordered 1.7 million masks, but only 1.2 million could fit on the plane, which was obviously built for passenger use and not shipping.
The remaining masks will come in a second shipment, according to the Journal.
Kraft’s acquisition of 300,000 masks for New York was a separate transaction, a spokesman told the Daily Mail.
However, those masks were included in the shipment that arrived in Massachusetts on Friday and were sent along to New York.
‘We agreed to buy them and give them to the people of the city of New York just to try to bring some hope and good will and let people know we’re trying to bring everything together,’ Kraft told CNN.
‘I’d been watching Governor [Andrew] Cuomo over the last few weeks and I just think he’s done an outstanding job,’ Kraft said. ‘He’s at the epicenter of this crisis, and he has a calming way about him. He brings confidence.
Police can be seen at the Javits Center, New York, which started taking COVID-19 patients beginning Friday
‘And I have a personal tie to New York City; Columbia was good to me, and gave me a full scholarship as a kid. I love the city. I love the people there. I don’t think what’s going on is something any of us could imagine.’
With state police escorts, a Patriots team truck delivered about 900,000 masks to a strategic reserve 30 miles west of Boston before driving another 100,000 masks to Rhode Island.
Currently 100 percent of donations to the Patriots Foundation are being used to buy medical supplies, which have been increasingly hard to find amid the growing outbreak.
Cuomo and Baker have complained that states are being forced to outbid each other for N95 masks, as well as other medical equipment, resulting in higher prices and shorter supplies.
Kraft had a similarly frustrating time getting the masks to the US.
‘I’ve never seen so much red tape in so many ways and obstacles that we had to overcome,’ Kraft said, according to the Journal.
‘In today’s world, those of us who are fortunate to make a difference have a significant responsibility to do so with all the assets we have available to us.’
Robert Kraft’s son Jonathan (left), the Patriots president and a board member at Massachusetts General Hospital, suggested using one of the team planes for the masks
The Patriots’ plane was reportedly limited to just three hours on the ground in Shenzen, and needed all but three minutes of that to load the masks for the return flight.
As detailed in the Journal’s piece, the effort began weeks earlier when Baker and his staff tracked down the necessary N95 manufacturers in China.
The problem was shipping them out of Shenzen amid the global pandemic and the subsequent shipping regulations.
There was even a chance that any potential flight crew could get quarantined in China, where the COVID-19 outbreak began.
‘I just have to get them here,’ he reportedly told Kraft’s son Jonathan, who serves as Patriots president and as chairman of the board at Massachusetts General Hospital.
It was Jonathan Kraft who suggested using one of the team’s two planes.
Robert Kraft, the US State Department and Baker all followed with letters to China’s counsel general in New York to acquire the special permits, request waivers, and explain that every member of the crew would remain on board while the plane was loaded.
After an avionics upgrade in Wilmington, Ohio on Friday night, the crew quickly scrambled to get visas by taking ID photos at a local pharmacy and sending them back to the Chinese Consulate, which opened its New York office over the weekend to accommodate the request.
Taking only mandatory rest and downtime, the crew landed in Alaska before heading to Shenzen, where one problem still remained: Who would load the masks onto the plane?
‘What we needed,’ said Kraft Sports and Entertainment COO JIM Nolan, ‘were boots on the ground to gather the goods and get them to the right place.’
With help from intermediaries, the group was connected with executives at Tencent, a Chinese tech company, agreed to send over a dozen people to inspect and aggregate the masks.
The group even stayed overnight guarding some of the shipment at the airport while manufacturers rushed to finish the rest.
When the order was complete, the Tencent team ushered the masks through customs and onto the waiting Patriots team plane. The remaining 500,000 or so masks are reportedly being guarded by Tencent until the second shipment can be made.
‘The Krafts were terrific,’ Baker said at his daily news conference Thursday. ‘They were a phone call away, and immediately went to work on the logistics associated with this, and did not stop until they could make it happen.’
The Patriots’ plane hauled 1.2 million medical-grade masks from China to Boston on Thursday after team owner Robert Kraft reportedly paid $2million to replenish Massachusetts’ dwindling supply during the coronavirus pandemic