The federal government waited until mid-March to bulk-order coronavirus supplies, AP reports

U.S. officials and intelligence agencies started warning the White House in mid-January that the coronavirus outbreak in China could spread through the U.S. and around the world, but "the Trump administration squandered nearly two months that could have been used to bolster the federal stockpile of critically needed medical supplies and equipment," The Associated Press reported Sunday night. "A review of federal purchasing contracts by The Associated Press shows federal agencies largely waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators, and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers."

By mid-March, U.S. hospitals in hard-hit areas were treating a rising number of COVID-19 patients without adequate equipment, states were bidding against each other for masks and ventilators on the open market, and Trump was telling states the role of the U.S. stockpile was supplier of last resort. "The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile," Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser in charge of coronavirus supply chains, said Thursday. "It's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use."

An AP reporter asked Trump about the federal supply shortfall at Sunday night's briefing, Trump dismissed the question and ended the briefing.

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The federal emergency stockpile was created in 1999 to prepare for the Y2K issue, then was expanded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and stocked up with pandemic response supplies in 2006. Greg Burel, director of the federal stockpile from 2007 until his retirement in January, told AP that based on budget allocations, it was intended only as a "bridge stock."

"States do not have the purchasing power of the federal government," said former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who also served as governor of Kansas. "They do not have the ability to run a deficit like the federal government. They do not have the logistical power of the federal government." Now, she added, "we basically wasted two months." Read more at The Associated Press.