Please follow the money here: yesterday on the dais five people revealed the reason for the lack of supplies in hospitals. The COVID task force is empowered to obtain needed supplies (both the finished product and the materials needed to produce them). In normal times, those supplies would be distributed by FEMA to where they are needed most. But the President has had “talks” with six companies (he has had “talks” with many private CEOs) who will get those supplies from the federal government and SELL THEM TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER. Why??? When asked why governors have to bid against each other, driving the price up, the answer was “Because the federal government is a only a back up,” because “we are not going to disrupt the supply chain,” because this is “what markets are for,” and because “governors could have bought these supplies a long time ago when there wasn’t competition.” Do not call this “inept” or “stupid” or “uninformed” or a “failure. “ This system is designed to move public tax dollars into private pockets and what is more, you can be absolutely certain that those CEO talks include a quid pro quo—a monopoly market for 6 companies and big campaign contributions (or private kickbacks) to Trump.