The Trump administration is giving every state the same number of respirators — regardless of population

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)

With the federal stockpile for personal protective equipment dwindling during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration reportedly sent shipments to states in a third and "final push" before the private sector takes on the bulk of the effort.

But new details from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency released by the House Oversight Committee show that the government did not appear to meet states' specific requests upon delivery. The first two rounds of shipments were based on census data from 2010, while the third round apparently wasn't adjusted for population at all.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.