To finance these windfalls for the El-Hibris, Kadlec needed to short other stockpile supplies. By the time the novel coronavirus emerged, the stockpile had only 12 million N95 respirators. Kadlec also scuttled an Obama-era initiative to spend a relatively trivial $35 million to build a machine that could produce 1.5 million N95 masks per day. To rationalize their inventory gaps, Kadlec pled poverty.116 The New York Times reported shocking shortfalls in protective gear for health care workers, ventilators, and masks just as the COVID-19 crisis called for them. Well aware of the situation,
...more
