Stone said FEMA had directed vendors with equipment on order from VA to instead send it to FEMA to replenish the government’s rapidly depleting emergency stockpile: “I had 5 million masks incoming that disappeared.” At the time, Stone told the Post, the VA’s four-week supply of equipment was almost gone, and the system was burning through about 200,000 masks in a day. The supply system was responding to FEMA, he said. “I couldn’t tell you when my next delivery was coming in.”
According to a recent ProPublica report , the VA has tried other means to acquire PPE, with limited success. The VA contracted to pay $34.5 million for 6 million N95 respirators, a 350% markup on the normal cost of the masks. Unfortunately, even at that price, the contractor received higher bids for the masks and the VA ended up cancelling the contract.
In an effort to reassure veterans and employees, the VA issued a press release insisting that it had stable and “sufficient” supplies on May 13. According to the release, the VA had on hand “the capacity to take in 12,215 critical and non-critical patients,” and its occupancy rates “remain steady at 35-40% nationwide in both acute care and intensive care units (ICUs).” The release also asserted that the “VA’s stock of medical supplies remains robust with millions of N95 masks on hand,” and 1,943 ICU ventilators.
