FL Emergency Management Director: 3M Prioritizing Masks to Foreign Countries with Cash over State Governments

Jared Moskowitz, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, spoke out on Fox News on Thursday against 3M, the manufacturer of the highly sought N95 mask, a preferred piece of personal protective equipment for medical personnel working on the front line against the coronavirus pandemic.

Moskowitz had been in a back-and-forth on social media with 3M, which led to him having an interaction with a government affairs official with company, which he learned startling details about the destination of some of the recently produced masks.

Hi @3M. I’m your new Troll. I’m the Director of Emergency Management for the State of Florida @FLSERT. Please send us N95 masks directly to our hospitals, first responders and the state. How many brokers and distributors do we have to negotiate with only to find empty warehouses? https://t.co/0E3gLc3R5t

— Jared Moskowitz (@JaredEMoskowitz) March 30, 2020

He told FNC’s Tucker Carlson their “authorized distributors” were selling masks to foreign countries that were showing up on their premises with cash.

“[I] thought perhaps maybe what 3M would finally say to me is that they have masks to sell me, but what I actually found out is even more frightening,” he said. “It is what we expected, which is that the system is completely broken — the authorized distributor can’t tell me a timeline when I’m going to receive my masks, orders that I put in a month — and by the way, the terms and conditions are I have got to pay for my masks and can’t cancel is 3M has lost total control. And so, what I asked 3M is, are they aware they’re authorized distributors — U.S. companies — are telling me the reason why our orders are being pushed down is because foreign countries are showing up with cash to purchase the orders and when I told 3M that not only did they not dispute it, I asked them if they put out any guidance to prevent the behavior, and the answer was no.”

According to Moskowitz, the company claimed to be making 10 million of the masks a week, and despite a seemingly high level of production, he was refused.

“3M is an ice cream store that doesn’t sell ice cream,” Moskowitz added.

Shortly after the segment aired, President Donald Trump tweeted 3M “would have a big price to pay.”

We hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks. “P Act” all the way. Big surprise to many in government as to what they were doing – will have a big price to pay!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2020

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor