Shortly before President Joe Biden was sworn in, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a waiver allowing Prestige Ameritech to export up to 5 million N95 masks per month, despite the U.S. still facing shortages of the masks, Kaiser Health News reported.
The waiver was sent to U.S. Border Patrol officials overseeing exports 103 minutes before President Biden was sworn in, according to Kaiser Health News, which obtained the waiver. The waiver allowed Prestige Ameritech, the largest domestic manufacturer of surgical masks and respirators in America, to export its N95 masks because it couldn't secure customers in the U.S.
Prestige Ameritech couldn't find U.S. customers because hospitals didn't want to perform fit tests to ensure its N95 model seals to employees' faces, the FEMA waiver said.
Mike Bowen, the company's president, said Prestige ramped up production of N95 masks from 75,000 per month to 9.6 million per month during the pandemic, according to Kaiser Health News. But major buyers lately haven't wanted to buy the masks, and the company doesn't have the infrastructure to sell to small buyers, so it now has so many masks in storage that it may need to lay off workers and wind down production, Kaiser Health News reported.
The FEMA waiver says it was granted in the "national defense interest" to ensure production keeps running at pace, according to Kaiser Health News. But Mr. Bowen told Kaiser Health News Prestige can't find overseas buyers, even with the waiver.
He told Kaiser Health News he doesn't understand why front-line workers say they need more N95 masks, but hospitals say they don't.
"There is a disconnect someplace, and I don't know where it is," he said. "Why aren't my phones ringing off the hook if there's a shortage?"
National Nurses United President Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, RN, told Kaiser Health News she still has to "beg" for a new N95 mask if hers is soiled.
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