Respirators for frontline personnel, typically around 58 cents each, were on sale by sellers for $ 7.50, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office reports. Thermometers cost twice their usual price, disposable gloves three times as much. Portable X-ray machines used in virus diagnosis cost 20 times what they were sold for before the state of emergency. “The price rip-off is a huge problem and it’s only getting worse,” Cuomo said at a press conference Monday.
With more than 43,000 Americans diagnosed with Covid-19 – and Cuomo’s expectation that up to 80 percent of New York’s 19.5 million residents could become infected – buying much-needed medical supplies has become a roller coaster ride. Prices change from minute to minute, buyers outbid each other, business agreements are broken at the last moment.
Not only are the states competing for potentially life-saving equipment, they are also vying with the Washington government. Hospitals in the New York City area, the hardest hit area in the country, had to look to the black market for critical equipment.
John Bonamo of RWJ Barnabas Health, New Jersey’s largest hospital equipment supplier, said his organization paid nine times the usual price for medical respirators last week – and he would be willing to drop 20 times this week. He received 15 offers a day from Chinese factories that demand cash advance payment. Some companies are reputable, others are not.
“The black market is booming,” said Bonamo.
(Bloomberg)
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