35,000,000 3M N95 Masks Found?

[JJ_BPK]

This just don't smell right...

Union Locates 39 Million N95 Masks for Healthcare Workers, Local Governments
By Bay City News • Published March 26, 2020 • Updated on March 26, 2020 at 11:09 am

Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers West announced Thursday that it located 39 million N95 masks and will make them available to state and local governments and health care systems that are fighting the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The union found a distributor with the masks, which are cleared for surgical use, after pleas from health care workers as new coronavirus cases surge across the state and the country as a whole.

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/coro...ments/2262072/

Congratulations to the union for the effort,, I think

To the distributor: What in hell are you doing??

My civilian background: I had a 30yr career in designing inventory control, accounts receivable/billable/ledger, product distribution pipeline and marketing.

The problem:

Every medical physicality, medical products supplier and manufactor in the USA (nee the world) is desperate for masks.

There is a distributor sitting on 35,000,000 masks.

N95 info:

N95 mask retail for about 7.00usd and wholesale for 1.50usd.

This distributor was sitting on 52 to 245 MILLION DOLLARS of inventory.

Phytcily this represents a BUNCH of space. 3M bulk ships the N95 in pallets, 40 boxes of 160 each. This converts to 54,687 pallets and represents approx 120,000 sq ft of warehousing, stacked three high in shelving units. Most of the US warehousing buildings run from 10K to 100K SQ FT for bulk pallet storage.


3M has only 18 authorized distributors. (c attach PDF file)

The Stink:

This smells of hoarding and price gouging on a very large scale.

For each dollar of price increase, the distributor pockets 35,000,000USD.

The inference that someone FOUND the masks is ludicrous.

I also looked at something that could gauge usage of masks, It's not possible to be very accurate, as there are just too many variables. But based only on the number of ICU beds(approx 95,000) in the USA this hoard represents about 120 days supply @ 3 per shift. In reality probably more like 60days.

link: SCCM Critical Care Statistics

[Pete]

Agree with your assessment.

[Ret10Echo]

As has come up in other, related threads it has been noted that there are "counterfeit" products out there. Buyer beware.

R10

[bblhead672]

SEIU would never lie for their own benefit. I'm sure its on the up and up.

[JJ_BPK]

Originally Posted by bblhead672

SEIU would never lie for their own benefit. I'm sure its on the up and up.

I'll say away from all the permutations of the whys and hows and intentions.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by bblhead672

SEIU would never lie for their own benefit. I'm sure its on the up and up.

Precisely.

TR

[Old Dog New Trick]

21-million more masks have been found stockpiled in California. Only problem is they are beyond their “Best if used by date” apparently it’s just the rubber retention bands that could be weak.

https://apple.news/AZsr15BoeTfuECNUy_XOZkA

Article states the obvious, we are not prepared.

[cbtengr]

Originally Posted by Old Dog New Trick

21-million more masks have been found stockpiled in California. Only problem is they are beyond their “Best if used by date” apparently it’s just the rubber retention bands that could be weak.

https://apple.news/AZsr15BoeTfuECNUy_XOZkA

Article states the obvious, we are not prepared.

Isn't the best if used by date a recommendation? Some common sense as to the viable use of these masks should come into play.

[Old Dog New Trick]

Originally Posted by cbtengr

Isn't the best if used by date a recommendation? Some common sense as to the viable use of these masks should come into play.

It’s only the elastic band. So get cranking and sew on new elastic bands. How hard is this?

[SF_BHT]

Originally Posted by Old Dog New Trick

It’s only the elastic band. So get cranking and sew on new elastic bands. How hard is this?

They are not that smart. It is CA.

[Badger52]

Maybe this was part of the replenishment of the national stockpile that Obama's DHS was supposed to do after H5N1 or whatever...? Maybe SEIU gets the tip so they get a hero moment...? Who knows. Snag 'em, subject to inspection by someone who knows WTF they're doing.



List of approved N95, hyperlinked alphabetically.

[JJ_BPK]

Seems the Union epiphany was more hot-air than substances??

I'm thinking Uncle Luca Brasi was involved?

Kapish?

Feds investigate aborted deal for 39 million coronavirus masks in California

A failed deal in California for millions of N95 masks has drawn the attention of a federal task force investigating coronavirus-related fraud, according to a report.

The health-care provider Kaiser Permanente says it is cooperating with the probe.

The deal fell through after a California health care workers’ union announced last month that it had found a supplier with 39 million N95 masks, according to the Los Angeles Times.


Service Employees International Union - United Healthcare Workers West went looking for the masks amid a growing shortage at hospitals treating coronavirus patients.

Kaiser spokesman Marc Brown told the Times Kaiser had growing questions about the supplier and backed out of an agreement to purchase 6 million of the masks.

“We learned shortly afterward that the supplier never had possession of the masks,” Brown said, according to the paper. “We are cooperating with federal law enforcement in their investigation of suspected fraud in this case.”

There was no indication SEIU was a target of the investigation, and the exact reasons why the masks didn’t come through remain unclear, the Times reported.

But the aborted arrangement marks the latest in a smoke-and-mirrors marketplace for equipment in short supply due to the onslaught of COVID-19 patients.

SEIU spokesman Steve Trossman told the Times the union “was trying to save the lives of healthcare workers and patients” and that union officials “were proud of having made that attempt.”

He said the name of the supplier had been turned over to a federal task force investigating suppliers of medical equipment related to COVID-19.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/feds-inve...-in-california

[Pete]

But the union got the up front good press.

I'd seen that a couple of days ago. The first stories made it sound like the masks were on hand.

This up date is more like "I know a guy who knows a guy who has....."

[Ret10Echo]

Everyone sees the false statement

No one ever sees the retraction...

So it goes.

[Badger52]

a California health care workers’ union...
Service Employees International Union - United Healthcare Workers West

Their big constituent - the hospitality service industry workers in Vegas - will be so proud.