This newspaper article discusses how California is ordering 200 million masks (150 million N95 masks and 50 million surgical masks) per month (which will cost nearly $1 billion a month) to protect California’s essential workers from coronavirus, and there is concern that other states will suffer shortages due to that order. Governor Newsom countered “We are not just looking at supplies in a scarce marketplace where it’s a zero-sum game, we are being additive.” Governor Newsom and New York Governor have complained about a procurement system where states are competing with other states and the federal government for supplies.
The California Legislature has “to authorize hundreds of millions of dollars for masks, starting with a $495 million allocation that relied on cobbling together funds from different state pots.” Private companies and nongovernmental organizations such as Americares, McKesson, and Cardinal, and global procurement firms Big Mountain Development and JR Resources have been identified as potential suppliers.
California plans to also “work with federal authorities and a defense contractor to deploy technology allowing up to 80,000 masks a day to be prepared for a second use.”
