The State Department’s projections are at odds with President Donald Trump’s rosy outlook that the virus “will go away.”

Government employees at several agencies are relying on KN95 masks that the agencies cannot guarantee offer the most protection. Some agencies have paid little attention to important manufacturing details and been tripped up by shifting regulations.

The statement from acting administrator John Barsa comes after ProPublica reported that Merritt Corrigan, who has condemned the “tyrannical LGBT agenda,” was appointed as USAID’s new deputy White House liaison.

Merritt Corrigan, USAID’s new deputy White House liaison, has condemned the “tyrannical LGBT agenda” and celebrated Hungary’s right-wing prime minister as “the shining champion of Western civilization.”

Trump’s former deputy chief of staff won a $3 million federal contract just days after registering his company. He delivered masks to Navajo hospitals that may not work. Rep. Gerry Connolly asked the HHS inspector general’s office to look into it.

In a battle between China and the U.S. over global leadership, American diplomats and aid officials cited U.S. funding of the World Health Organization as key and relied heavily on the agency for help. When Trump cut its funding, he upended all that.

A draft State Department memo says the move would “cede ground” to China and hobble the global response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Trump administration has rushed through more than $760 million in contracts outside the usual bidding process during its haphazard coronavirus response. It’s highly unusual for the White House to step into FEMA’s supply bidding process.

Fiscal restraints imposed by Republicans in Congress in the early years of the Obama administration left the U.S. less prepared to respond to the coronavirus pandemic today.