Florida emergency management official says 3M selling masks to foreign countries: 'We're chasing ghosts'
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The head of Florida's Division of Emergency Management has accused U.S. mask manufacturer 3M of shipping the critical protective equipment to foreign countries who outbid U.S. buyers -- even as hospitals and state officials desperately scramble to secure N95 protective masks for healthcare workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic.
Jared Moskowitz told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Thursday that he discovered that 3M distributors were prioritizing foreign buyers after they refused to sell him the essential equipment.
"For the last several weeks, we have had a boiler room chasing down 3M authorized distributors [and] brokers representing that they sell the N95 masks, only get to warehouses that are completely empty," Moskowitz said. "[We are] being told that our shipments are on cargo planes and the flights don't even appear. We are chasing ghosts. I just decided to turn up the heat and tell people what is actually happening in the N95 mask space."
Moskowitz claimed to have reached out to many 3M authorized distributors in the United States to confirm his suspicions, and said he was shocked to find American companies quietly partnering with foreign buyers at a time of national crisis.
"They're specifically saying, 'Listen, we are sorry your order got pushed down, but ... there are foreign countries who do business differently and they're showing up with cash.'"
Moskowitz said he has a hard time grappling with "the idea that an American company is selling masks away from our hospitals, away from our doctors ... away from the real heroes on the front lines" and called for investigations into what he described as "criminal" activity.
"I can't, other emergency management directors, CEOs of hospitals can't get this life-saving PPE [Personal Protective Equipment] because a company decided to make a globalist decision and not put America first."
Moskowitz voiced his frustrations on Twitter and said he was later contacted by the communications team at Minnesota-based 3M, who admitted to a "broken system" but stopped short of taking action.
"I thought perhaps maybe what 3M would finally say to me is that they have masks to sell me, but what I actually found out is even more frightening," he explained. "... Which is that the system is completely broken. 3M has lost total control. What I asked 3M is, are they aware they're authorized distributors -- U.S. companies -- are telling me the reason why our orders are being pushed down is because foreign countries are showing up with cash to purchase the orders ... not only did they not dispute it, [but] I asked them if they put out any guidance to prevent the behavior and the answer was no," Moskowitz added.
3M told Moskowitz that they had no stock to sell him, despite producing close to 10 million masks a day,
" I said ... 'I have money and I'd like to purchase some of those.' They said I couldn't, they have no masks to sell me. It's criminal what is happening."
Moskowitz emphasized that his criticism is not directed towards the "workers in the factories at 3M who are working 24 hours a day to try to create this life-saving PPE. This is about the executives who decided not to put America first and it's going to have devastating consequences."
The official said he offered to pay "ten, sometimes twenty" times of the standard price of the masks, but was denied.
"3M is an ice cream store that doesn't sell ice cream," he explained.
"Since when do we have a U.S. company that sells masks and I try to offer them money and they don't sell them to me? I have to go through their authorized distributors and their only excuse is that they don't have a perfect system.
"I'm relegated to making deals with brokers at costs that are ten and sometimes 20 times the actual costs of these masks, [but] at the end of the day, regardless of the cost of this point, getting the mask is the most important and we can't even get them."
Earlier in the week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said his state was on the hunt for N95 masks and called the procurement process "shady as hell," adding that despite ordering "so many," they only get a little bit here and a little bit there.”
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3M makes millions of masks. The masks go to about 20 brokers. What they do with them 3M cares not.
The President takes action against 3M:
Sickening that it takes the president taking direct action against 3M for them to sell to US hospitals and medical/emergency personnel first.
The very first thing 3M should have demanded from their distributors is that the masks go to US facilities first.
Nail their azzes to the wall.
Thank God for President Trump and his putting an end to what these middlemen were doing with the complicity it seems of 3M. America and Americans First!
What!?!!?? Capitalism is no longer KING in all the conservative bubbles? Come on Mr Trump we need more Socialism here! All for something we were told wasn't anything worse than the common flu or cold (which some are still trying to argue). HAHAHAHA Hypocrisy is awesome!
No one is infringing on 3M. They are still free to sell their product and turn a profit. The profit will come from US hospitals and companies now.
This is not socialism.
Profit has little to nothing to do with socialism. Government telling business who and where they can sell to is so similar as to taking control of the business your point is lost.
Only in your mind.
Try again. Government also sets the price point in socialism. Keep digging.
Thanks for proving my whole black/white point!
Game, set, and match to evilgenius.......
If ya think about it, government's just took over "Business's", by telling them ….. "YOU WILL SHUT DOWN" !
More Socialistic processes are now needed to "Save the World" ?
That "Socialistic" thingy Gov. just did, has hit this country....in the Wrong Way ! "Socialistic Antics does that kinda thing !
"Grants" to small business's, which follow the rules for those "Grants", isn't very "Socialistic"......is it ?
CDC for the 2019 to 2020 Flu Season for this country ALONE :
October to March :
400,000 – 730,000
flu hospitalizations
24,000 – 62,000
flu deaths
133 to 344 per day DEATHS for "Influenza Issues" !
So socialism is good? I mean conservatives often argue from a black/white point of view and when I (and other moderates) have argued from the shades of gray I'm (we are) taken out context or outright reviled as siding with evil. Now when I say some socialism can be good in some situations you will agree? Or will you in 6 months argue socialism is the same as Stalinism?
Is It ?
From what I've seen so far..... NOT !
Approx. 200,000 to 250,000 (thousand) cases of CV-19 known in this country, out of an estimated population of over 300 million ?
We're ALL doomed ?
Just so I understand you are you saying you are unhappy with the Trump Bucks stimulus package and the evocation of The War Powers Act to compel businesses to produce PPE and respirators?
It's not a "Stimulus Package".
To "Stimulate' means to get something going !
This is a "Save our countries peoples asses" package, for what government is "Forcing on the folks" !
Didn't you get the "Memo" ?
Hahahaha! Okay...
So this "Package"....is to get the economy "Up and Running Again" (to Stimulate Spending)?
You actually "Think
" that ?
But Big Gov. is telling everyone that we need to stay "Shutdown" until at least the END of May now.
Money for NOTHING ?
Socialism! Trump's now a big bad socialist!
Uh-Huh ..….
Haven't seen Trump declare a "National Shutdown". Have you ?
Seems to be a "State to State" thing...… doesn't it !
I'm watching "Cuomo" right now (apparently the new democrat presidential choice). His "Thoughts" change more times than someone MUST change a babies diapers !
chix 4 free ?
.
So people getting to eat, is nothing ?
You didn't pay attention to the actual Total conversation again ….. Did You !
God I hate this comparison. It is so fucking dumb in several ways.
So just based on hospitalzations and deaths, sure the flu looks just as bad or worse. That is of course until you actually compare numbers.
At least 13 million were infected with the flu this year (so far), and maybe 61,000 died. That is a .004% fatality rate.
So far we have had over 240,000 cases of this virus, and over 7000 deaths which means this virus has at least a .03% fatality rate. So with that in mind, if this thing infect 13 million people, just like the flu, it will kill around 390,000 of them. Not exactly a little thing.
Not to mention that the risk isn't completely people dying from the virus, but hospitals being overwhelmed by patients and people dying from other causes.
You shouldn't !
Fatality rates are only as bad as the media makes it out to be.
61,000 dead, is still waaaaaay more than the amount Dead in this "Sick" era of CV-19 at 7,000.
61,000 is waaaaaay more than 7,000 !
So "One" major count of "Dead"....isn't as bad as a smaller "Dead" Count ?
The word is Nationalism!
Control critical exports like arms.
Yeah, blame the manufacturer when it's the middlemen who are profiteering. The behavior of distributors and supply houses explain why medical costs in the United States are so high. But let's ignore the real problem and blame the manufacturers and the care providers.
Globalization is a competition between consumers. Globalization allows middlemen to pit consumers around the world against each other and drive up prices. Middlemen can create shortages with a snap of their fingers. Just ship everything somewhere else or fill warehouses and, presto chango, instant profits.
An economy that depends upon toilet paper profiteers isn't capitalism. The Goldman Sachs model of profiteering with artificial shortages isn't capitalism. The Wells Fargo model of profiteering by creating fake accounts and fake loans isn't capitalism. These are middleman institutions that do not contribute to production or supplying consumer demand.
So, if manufacturers are the problem then why not nationalize production? Why not shift the economy to socialism and eliminate the middleman? Everyone is demanding that the Federal government step in and distribute what is produced. Why not make that permanent?
Of course, eliminating middlemen in the economy would drastically cut political donations. Those public minded civil servants would have a difficult time enriching themselves.
Yes, let's allow ourselves to be guided by news organizations who are profiteering from controversy and produce nothing. Manufacturers are the real enemy. Distributors and supply houses are advertisers, after all. As long as middlemen share their ill gotten gain among non-producers then everything is hunky dory.
The manufacturer didn't care what the middlemen were doing; and wasn't going to take action to reign them in.
It is more expedient to go after the manufacturer- and time is of the essence.
So, the manufacturer is supposed to regulate the marketplace by picking and choosing their customers? That would be handing lawyers a gift. And political Washington would erupt in self righteous outrage. Politicians claim that only they have Constitutional authority to regulate the marketplace.
You know, the President can impose tariffs on exports, too. Congress could enact laws requiring exports to pass through customs and pay duties, too. Congress could impose excise taxes on exports, too. Congress can prohibit exportation of specific goods and services. Political Washington could nip profiteering in the bud very quickly. But that would mean sacrificing political donations.
The problem, should the Federal government regulate exports, is that the ideological underpinning of global neo-liberalism would suffer. Regulating imports and exports impedes international cooperation, global interdependence, international fiance, unfettered exploitation of resources, and use of the military to enforce open borders.
Force exports to go through customs and authorize impounding contraband. The government could seize the PPE in customs and distribute it from there without compensating profiteers. The only thing required is a piece of legislation.
"...he was later contacted by the communications team at Minnesota-based 3M, who admitted to a "broken system""
MBAs have given us so much.
Companies don't operate in China without China stepping in and becoming a partner.
The CCP doesn't just let companies operate in China to provide employment for Chinese. They make the final decision of anything that goes on in their Communists Dictatorship and share in the profits of those companies.
Take a look at this:
The Trump administration has criticized 3M for sending protective equipment to countries other than the United States, though the company has also ramped up imports into the US — it said on Friday that it recently got approval to send over 10 million N95 respirator masks to the US from its facilities in China.
Now, who are they getting approval from? I mean they are 3M, the company, right? Who do they have to get approval from?
Now the link and info above in this comment is from an article from Business Insider:
Funded by / Ownership
In 2015, German publishing company and owner of Bild, Die Welt, and Fakt, Axel Springer acquired Business Insider for $442 million, which brought their share to approximately 97 percent. Bezos Expeditions, the personal investment company of Jeff Bezos, will hold the further shares according to details of the purchase . The website is funded through online advertising.
So it looks like 3M, a company who calls themselves an American company, is really working for or being controlled by China and an article praising their work is 97% owned by a German company, where a shipment of 200,000 N95 respirators were heading before they were diverted in Thailand to the USA. This is Globalism at its worst.
This action is what many in this country will criticize, not praise. Some will say we were wrong to take such an action, unless Trump was not the President. It would have been one of sacrifice, a great humanitarian act had been several years ago. If you don't put your family or country first, what does that say about you?
LOL..That's news to my brother-in-law who manufactures cigarettes, and is quite well off.
Perhaps what you mean is that FOREIGN companies don't operate in China without making certain concessions to the Chinese government. The American government doesn't impose certain controls on foreign companies, I suppose. Ever heard of a company called Huawei?
Are you saying that America STOLE them? Surely America would never do a thing like that....
The gist of all your rambling is that supply chains are complicated and you cannot just dictate that companies do this or that. They are going to do what they were always meant to do, generate a profit for the company and thus the shareholders. That is it.
We might have been able to get those masks, but we drug our feet because after all, the CV is just a democratic hoax, right? Shame of 3M. I have bought my last product from them.
You have probably already given them more money. That company is huge.
I have bought my last product from them.
I don't think so, Paula. I know I can't say that. The only thing I will say at this point is they were obviously aware their business was booming. It would be interesting to know exactly when that started and where the sales were coming from. I have my suspicions.
All 3M Products
3m makes A TON OF SHIT. You can try to avoid them, but like Viacom, at some point you are paying them.
AKA the free market [removed]
Now if the argument is that in emergency situations the government should be able to "nationalize" certain industries for the welfare of the country as a whole, then okay, makes sense. But trying to argue that without any sort of organized federal effort, private businesses should have to essentially "nationalize" on their own is dumb. Businesses are going to do what they were always meant to do, sell goods to those who want to buy them at the best price.
That wasn't really Moskowitz's point. I believe his point was to show the American public why there has been a shortage of masks!
The President has now prevented masks from leaving the country, rather than nationalizing 3M. That would be the difference between Nationalism and Socialism.
Then let's go even further. Every member of the military as well as all medical personnel and first responders and police should be given hydroxychloroquine.
Faulty models like the Governor of New York is using must be discarded.
The end of April must be the final deadline for the economic shutdown.
So let's get it done!
It looks like we are on the same page!
You too my friend.