Barbados accuses U.S. of blocking ventilators for coronavirus, then walks back allegation
Barbados was the latest country to accuse the United States of blocking it from acquiring critical medical equipment to fight COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus.
In a live broadcast of a national briefing Sunday, Health Minister Lt. Col Jeffrey Bostic said that 20 ventilators purchased by a philanthropist had been “seized” in the U.S.
But not long after stories from island media outlets went online detailing his comments, the Daily Nation in Barbados published an article walking back Bostic’s allegation. The paper reported that hours after Bostic made the claim during a live broadcast, and after interview requests from the Miami Herald, he told them that “‘seize’ might not have been the correct word.”
“It has to do with export restrictions being placed on certain items,” he was quoted as telling the newspaper. Bostic said discussions were ongoing between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United States Embassy.
His public comments the previous night were more pointed.
“Those ventilators were actually stopped in the United States, the exportation of those 20 ventilators,” Bostic said. “Ventilators are one of the most in-demand items in the world today and Barbados is merely wrestling with the other 203 countries and territories around the world seeking to secure as many of these pieces of equipment as possible.”
Bostic did not say who the good Samaritan was but, during the broadcast, he corrected an earlier statement that the seized ventilators were from Barbados-born songstress Rihanna. Five of those ventilators, which were announced last month by Prime Minister Mia Mottley, are scheduled to arrive next week, he said.
On Sunday night, The Miami Herald emailed, called and texted Bostic for further details on the shipment, including whether he had reached out to the State Department or the U.S. Embassy in Barbados about his concerns. He did not respond.
A State Department spokesperson, in an email to the Herald, seemed to suggest that some previous media reports about seized medical exports may not be accurate.
“We remain concerned about pervasive attempts to divide international efforts through unsourced, unattributed disinformation campaigns,” a spokesperson said.
In recent days a number of countries — Canada, Germany, France — and even some U.S. states, have accused the Trump administration and American suppliers of diverting medical equipment and not playing by the rules in the hunt for ventilators and scarcely available personal protective equipment such as N95 respiratory face masks as they struggle to manage their outbreaks.
The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reported Friday that a delivery of protective equipment ordered by the State of Berlin in China for the coronavirus had reportedly been intercepted and diverted to the United States. Berlin’s Interior Minister Andreas GeiseI said they considered the confiscation to be “an act of modern piracy” and urged Germany’s government to demand that Washington play by international trade rules.
“This is not how you deal with transatlantic partners,” Geisel said. There shouldn’t be “wild west methods,” he said, even in times of global crisis.
That same day, the Guardian reported that a French official from a hard-hit region also complained about having a shipment of medical masks from Shanghai diverted to the U.S. after being outbid by “Americans.” “They offered three times the price and they proposed to pay upfront. I can’t do that. I’m spending taxpayers’ money and I can only pay on delivery having checked the quality,” the Guardian said Valérie Pécresse, the influential president of the Île-de-France region, told BFMTV. “So we were caught out.”
On Thursday, President Donald Trump lashed out at the Minnesota-based N95 respiratory mask manufacturer 3M, tweeting that “We hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks.”
The next day, he invoked the Defense Production Act to require 3M to prioritize orders from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for its N95 mask, and to ban “unscrupulous actors and profiteers” from exporting critical medical gear. The company almost immediately pushed back in a statement.
The administration, 3M said, had asked it to cease exporting its N95 respirators that it currently manufactures in the United States to the Canadian and Latin American markets.
“There are, however, significant humanitarian implications of ceasing respirator supplies to healthcare workers in Canada and Latin America, where we are a critical supplier of respirators,” the statement said. “In addition, ceasing all export of respirators produced in the United States would likely cause other countries to retaliate and do the same, as some have already done. If that were to occur, the net number of respirators being made available to the United States would actually decrease. That is the opposite of what we and the Administration, on behalf of the American people, both seek.”
The company said it had already secured approval from China to export 10 million N95 respirators manufactured by 3M in China to the U.S.
“3M and its employees have gone above and beyond to manufacture as many N95 respirators as possible for the U.S. market,” the company said.
During Sunday’s press conference, Barbados’ health minister sought to reassure the nation that they had other channels to secure ventilators as the number of COVID-19 cases in the island of nearly 288,000 inhabitants rose to 56 and the first coronavirus-related death was recorded Saturday. The deceased is an 81-year-old Barbadian male who had a pre-existing medical condition.
As the number of cases in the Caribbean and Latin America continue to escalate, the role of the U.S. in helping nations in the region deal with the global pandemic is an emerging concern. Already cash-strapped, countries are facing everything from a shortage of test kits to ventilators and medical gear for health workers.
Recently Haiti’s new foreign minister, Claude Joseph, invoked the country’s vulnerability as he sought the help of chief of missions in helping the government acquire a list of medical equipment, including 100 ventilators and 200,00 N95 masks, in addition to the $18 million worth of purchase orders that had already been made to China. Haiti currently has 21 confirmed cases and on Sunday recorded its first coronavirus-related death, a 55-year-old male with diabetes and hypertension.
Cuban officials also recently complained about the U.S preventing aid from getting to them, citing the U.S.’s six-decade embargo. Chinese business magnate and Alibaba founder Jack Ma recently announced that his foundation was shipping 2 million masks, 400,000 rapid test kits, and 104 ventilators to 24 countries in the region, including Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Dominican Republic and Peru.
But Cuba’s shipment never made it, according to Cuba’s ambassador to China, Carlos M. Pereira.
Pereira said on his blog that Ma’s foundation tried to send Cuba 100,000 face masks and 10 COVID-19 diagnostic kits along with other aid including ventilators and gloves, but the airline would not transport them, citing the U.S. embargo. Cuba currently has 320 positive cases and has confirmed eight deaths.
This story was originally published April 6, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
