Illinois Gov. Says Trump Admin. Sent Surgical Masks Instead Of Requested Specialized Masks

President Donald Trump listens to questions during a briefing on the latest development of the coronavirus outbreak in the press briefing room at the White House on March 20, 2020. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
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President Donald Trump’s administration sent only surgical masks to Illinois instead of the specialized N95 masks Gov. Illinois J.B. Pritzker (D) had requested to protect hospital workers from COVID-19, according to the governor.

“I can say with certainty that what they sent were not the N95 masks that were promised, but were surgical masks, which were not what we asked for,” Pritzker told reporters on Monday during a daily press conference. “In our first request to the federal government, we asked for 1.2 million N95 masks.”

He added that Illinois only got a “fraction” of what it asked for “weeks and weeks.

Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the loose-fitting surgical masks do little to protect users from the airborne coronavirus, whereas the tight-fitting N95 reduces risk of exposure by filtering out 95% of particles in the air.

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  1. Well, I guess they really aren’t shipping clerks.

  2. Trump admin: “Hey, Illinois: You’re a blue state with a plain speaking Democratic governor – stop your bitching and be grateful you got anything. Oh, and go ahead and use these surgical masks with your coronavirus patients from Chicago!”

  3. “You’ve seen one mask, you’ve seen them all”…

    Forget about masks, there is clearly a shortage of gags at the WH…

  4. No accountability, no plan and no idea of what they are doing. This is your Federal government folks, but as my friends that voted for Trump like to say, “there’s no way they were voting for Hillary Clinton”.

    This timeline sucks.

  5. Some people are so picky. They just have to insist on what medical experts recommend instead of being grateful for the largess granted by the Administration with the highest ratings for “Presidential” Press Briefings.

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