Mismanagement and miscommunication by President Donald Trump and his top advisors have reportedly hamstrung the construction of tens of thousands of sorely needed ventilators.
The White House this week abruptly canceled a planned $1.5 billion agreement by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to buy as many as 80,000 of the breathing devices from a new partnership between General Motors and the medical device manufacturer Ventec Life Systems.
Despite public statements earlier this week that he had given U.S. automakers a “go-ahead” to start making ventilators, Trump and senior administration officials began fretting over the deal’s price tag, according to The New York Times.
The president and top advisors worried that GM and Ventec would not be able to deliver enough ventilators. The companies’ projections for the first run of production fell from 20,000 ventilators to 7,500. However, at the same time, the White House and federal officials also feared that the federal government would end up with a surplus of the devices.
The estimated $1.5 billion cost – about $18,000 per ventilator – amounts to 0.075% of the $2 trillion relief package passed by the Senate early Thursday. As the Times pointed out, it’s also roughly the cost of just 18 F-35 fighter jets.
Ventilators are in severely short supply as the number of cases of coronavirus, or COVID-19, have soared. State officials and medical workers across the country have cheered the arrival of even a handful of ventilators, let alone a few hundred or several thousand.
Last week, GM became the first automaker to publicly acknowledge that it was considering joining efforts to help make ventilators and other devices. Ford and Tesla have since taken similar steps. All three automakers, and many others, had halted their assembly lines to help slow the spread of coronavirus.
While Trump has implied that he had given automakers permission to start making ventilators, the companies do not need White House sign-off to make the devices. However, companies are seeking some assurance that there will be a clear buyer for the ventilators that they build – especially manufacturers such as GM, Ford and Tesla that don’t normally build medical devices, and which will need weeks to either reconfigure current factories or invest in new facilities.
The FEMA deal would provide such assurance to GM and Ventec. However, Trump has refrained from taking similar steps on a broader scale, namely implementing the provision of the Defense Production Act of 1950 that would allow federal officials to direct private industries to begin making certain goods – here, amid the coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic, ventilators, respirators, face masks and face shields to alleviate severe shortages in the equipment. Yet while Trump has said that the Act “is in full force,” these provisions have not been instituted – further slowing ventilator production.
The Trump administration says it is now considering competing deals.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.
