Inside the chaotic PPE market where shortages of critical supplies persist – By Leslie Stahl (CBS News) / Dec 6 2020
With PPE supplies still running low, Lesley Stahl reports on the frenzied market for masks, gloves and more.
We’re nine months into the pandemic, and health care workers still find themselves scrambling for PPE, personal protective equipment. The shortages are more and more acute, as cases keep rising in practically every state, and we’re gearing up to launch a nationwide program of vaccinations.
With no effective federal coordination early on, desperate governors, mayors, doctors and sheriffs were left fending for themselves and bidding against each other for supplies like masks and gloves. The global hunt for inventory has created a free-for-all market that’s attracted speculators, self-starters, and outright scammers, leading to congressional and criminal investigations. Tonight you’ll meet someone who got into the game, and in his first month in business racked up orders worth roughly $630 million. But then, things didn’t go quite as planned.
John Thomas
John Thomas: I think I underestimated the challenges, where the entire world was looking for these same supplies.
John Thomas is the president of Blue Flame Medical, a PPE supply company. He and his partner, Mike Gula, were Republican strategists who jumped into the business as COVID hit, despite having zero experience in importing medical supplies.
Lesley Stahl: You, right away, before you were even up and running practically, advertised yourself as, “the largest global network of COVID-19 medical suppliers.” Now, that couldn’t be true in a million years.
John Thomas: Well, so here’s what I did. We started with my long-time relationship with a large Chinese manufacturer. That was our base. And then I started working my connections from Vietnam to Mexico to Malaysia. So we felt comfortable– now, was it a frenetic pace? Yes. Was the airplane being built while in flight? Yes. But every claim we’ve made, I stand behind.
CONTINUE > https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ppe-production-company-investigation-charges-60-minutes-2020-12-06/
