GOP governor: 'We're killing ourselves' trying to get medical supplies to hospitals

A week ago, Donald Trump laughed off Gov. Charlie Baker (R-MA) in a conference call when Baker said Massachusetts could not get medical equipment to handle the coronavirus outbreak.

From a March 26 press conference:

CHARLIE BAKER, Governor of Massachusetts (R): I spoke in my opening remarks about compassion and bravery, okay? There are a lot of very compassionate and very brave people here in the commonwealth who are doing what they can to serve people, recognizing and understanding that in this particular area, the entire country is struggling to deliver.

 

And I stand here as someone who has had confirmed orders for millions of pieces of gear evaporate in front of us. And I can’t tell you how frustrating it is.

 

We now have other orders that are outstanding that are probably “confirmed” but we’ve literally gotten to the point where our basic position is: Until the god—until the thing shows up here in commonwealth of Mass, it doesn’t exist. But I’m telling you, people are spending hours and hours and hours trying to get this stuff here. For exactly that reason.

 

Our first responders, our health care workers, everybody deserves to have that gear. And I’m telling you we’re killing ourselves trying to make it happen.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.