![]() We’re not passing any of those costs on to our customers. “I think one of the misconceptions out there is that a company like ours is somehow going gangbusters at the expense of this virus and that couldn’t be farther than the truth,” he said. Critics say companies are profiting off the arrangement. FEMA covers the cost to fly supplies into the US, thereby expediting the shipment of supplies from major distributors. “We explained that one thing we don’t own and operate is a fleet of cargo planes and so what we suggested was that on top of the cargo flights that we have arranged – and that we continue to arrange and bring in on a weekly basis – if the federal government wanted to arrange for cargo flight, we could bring additional PPE and other medical devices on top of what we’re already bringing in,” Greenberg said. Late last month, Medline’s CEO Charlie Mills, along with senior executives of several other supply chain distributors, met with Trump and Pence to discuss the response to coronavirus.Īt the time, the companies explained how they were getting supplies to the US. The coalition of companies helping with the administration’s so-called Airbridge effort cover more than 90-95% of the health systems in the US, according to a source familiar with the initiative. “This way the governor should know exactly what is being delivered through a private sector, supply chain within their states as well as through the Project Airbridge,” he told reporters at a White House briefing. Trump said Thursday that Vice President Mike Pence is providing governors with a county breakdown of what’s been received. Pritzker, a Democrat.įrom wheels down to delivery to a hospital via truck, the process that can take around three to seven days. “What they are taking credit for, the White House, is that the distributors have customers in Illinois that they are sending goods to because those customers ordered those items of PPE, so that’s a far cry from delivering to the states so that we can distribute,” said Illinois Gov. “One of the great benefits of Project Airbridge, I think, is that we’re trying to leverage what the private sector does best and what the federal government can step in and do very well in a short time fashion,” said Jesse Greenberg, public affairs director at Medline.Įven with the initiative in place, governors nationwide continue jockeying for critically needed equipment – at times blasting the administration for not handing the supplies directly over to the states, instead of to customers within the state. ![]() Within a 48-hour window, the products were cleared by customs, unloaded from the aircraft and arranged to send to a local warehouse to be organized.Īt the warehouse, a team of around 50 people moved quickly to remove tarps, take the individual boxes of items out of the larger packaging, combine the boxes, and move them to a trucking dock to ship them off to their next destination.įrom wheels down to delivery to a hospital, the process can take around three to seven days. ![]() On April 16, one of those shipments arrived at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on a FEMA-chartered flight, which average between $750,000 to $800,000 a flight. Medline provided CNN access to one of its third-party warehouses where cargo flown in on an Airbridge flight is broken down before being sent to a company distribution center. While the supplies are flown in by FEMA, the allocation of supplies is split between the administration’s designated hotspots and the distributors’ customers, some of whom might also be in those critical areas. Nearly 6 million face masks from China arrived at Medline's Chicago distribution center earlier this month. So far, millions of supplies, including gloves, surgical masks, surgical gowns, and face masks have arrived in the US on more than 70 flights – earning praise from President Donald Trump, who’s called it “an amazing success,” and at times, criticism from governors who say the supplies should go directly to the states. The Federal Emergency Management Agency launched the endeavor, dubbed “Project Airbridge,” in late March with six US distributors, including the company Medline. The arrival of the items is part of the Trump administration’s effort to expedite the shipment of supplies overseas, as the nation wrestles with a dire shortage of equipment in the face of a growing number of coronavirus cases and deaths. When nearly 6 million face masks arrived at Medline’s Chicago distribution center earlier this month, they had already traveled more than 7,000 miles to supply around 20 coronavirus hotspots around the country, including areas in Illinois, New York, Michigan, Louisiana and Washington.
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