Trump orders more N95 masks. 3M says his tactics could make the shortage worse.
https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/4/1/21196941/coronavirus-n95-mask-respirator-shortage-trump
The situation in the United States is increasingly dire. On April 2, President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) to compel 3M, one of the only companies that manufacturers N95 masks in the US, to ramp up production. Many, including Democratic presidential primary candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, had pushed the White House to use the DPA more aggressively to deal with medical supplies shortages. The president later said in a tweet that 3M “will have a big price to pay” for exporting masks.
3M pushed back against Trump’s threats. In a Friday statement, the company emphasized that it had gained approval to import 10 million masks from its facilities in China. 3M also warned about the White House’s request to end its exports of N95 respirators, citing “humanitarian implications of ceasing respirator supplies to health care workers in Canada and Latin America.” If other countries retaliated by not sharing supplies, 3M argued, the US could soon end up with fewer masks than it had before the DPA order.
Despite global production ramping up, the US shortage of N95 masks is so great that companies, unions, and even average people have been scrambling to fill the need by searching for stockpiles of existing masks and seeking out alternative suppliers. Another problem is that many of these respirators, including those made by 3M, are ending up in a somewhat lawless gray market, where they’re subject to hoarding and price-gouging. Accordingly, federal authorities are hard at work tracking down stashes of this desperately needed personal protective equipment and redistributing what they find to health care worker.