The federal government has seized hundreds of thousands of personal protective equipment (PPE) from price gougers with the intent of redistributing them to frontline workers working amid the COVID-19 crisis in New York and New Jersey.
The items — which included around 192,000 N95 respirator masks, 598,000 medical grade gloves, and 130,000 surgical masks, hand sanitizer, disinfectant, among other items — were confiscated by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Upon notifying the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Defense Production Act (DPA) was engaged to order those supplies immediately to be used to furnish those in need.
“Cracking down on the hoarding of vital supplies allows us to distribute this material to the heroic healthcare workers on the frontlines who are most in need,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said. “Thanks to the quick work of the White House, the Department of Justice, and HHS, the seized resources were distributed in days to the doctors, nurses, and first responders who need them.”
Azar added that people should be on the lookout for such behavior, though things didn’t end too badly for the hoarder — HHS will still pay them pre-COVID-19 fair market value for the confiscated supplies. In return, the New Jersey Department of Health, the New York State Department of Health, and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will benefit from the influx.
“This is the first of many such investigations that are underway,” Peter Navarro, DPA policy coordinator and assistant to the President, said. “Our FBI agents and other law enforcement agencies are tracking down every tip and lead they get and are devoting massive federal resources to this effort. All individuals and companies hoarding any of these critical supplies, or selling them at well above market prices, are hereby warned they should turn them over to local authorities or the federal government now or risk prompt seizure by the federal government.”