On 4/2/20 7:08 PM, Bill wrote:
Keyser Soze wrote:
...the Trump administration says. But, of course, if you are an ordinary
citizen, you probably can't buy one. How many were just shipped overseas?

350,000,000 masks needed, times changes...a billion masks? When will we
have them, Trumpy?


So? How many were shipped overseas?


We will never know, but...

https://is.gd/4Q9JTh for openers:

Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare, a Pennsylvania-based health product firm
that produces supplemental oxygen machines, sent at least three
different shipments of respiratory equipment to Belgium in mid-February
and early March. The total cargo included 14 containers weighing more
than 55 tons. DeVilbiss and its owner, Clayton Dubilier & Rice, a New
York-based private equity firm, did not respond to a request for comment.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf reportedly reached out to DeVilbiss later in
March to support the company’s increased production of respiratory
medical devices. “Our demand is unprecedented,” Tim Walsh, the company’s
vice president, told WJAC, a local news station.

Vapotherm, a New Hampshire firm that produces respiratory equipment, has
faced surging demand from international customers. The company has added
50 employees and a second shift to meet growing demand for its products.
WMUR, a local news station, profiled Vapotherm’s role in producing
lifesaving respiratory equipment used to treat the coronavirus.

During the segment, Joseph Army, the chief executive of Vapotherm, told
the station that he first heard from customers in Europe and Asia in
response to the coronavirus. A camera shot of Vapotherm’s factory showed
a box labeled “Japan.” The demand, he added, has shifted in recent weeks
to domestic contracts for clients in Seattle, New York City, Georgia,
and Florida.

Invoice records confirm the international shipments. On March 8, two
tons of Vapotherm’s high-flow disposable patient circuit units, used for
operating its respiratory aids, were loaded onto a container ship in the
Port of Los Angeles. The shipment was sent to Kobe, Japan, for Japan
Medicalnext Co., a health care distributor.

The records show dozens of other shipments of respirator equipment,
medical garments, medical masks, oxygen concentrators, and ventilators
sent abroad over the last two months.

On February 28, a ship left New York for Hamburg, Germany, with about
1.5 tons of ventilator masks manufactured by Allied Healthcare Products,
a health product business based in St. Louis. The masks are used for the
company’s portable ventilator unit.