The president of United States, Donald Trump, issued an order Friday to compel General Motors (GM) to produce artificial respirators under the Defense Production Act.
On Friday, the US president launched a furious attack against GM and its president, Mary Barra, whom he accused of failing to fulfill their promises to produce thousands of respirators necessary to treat the most seriously ill of COVID-19.
“As usual with ‘this’ General Motors, things don’t seem to work. They said they were going to give us 40,000 much-needed respirators very quickly. Now they are saying there will only be 6,000 by the end of April and they want a lot of money.” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“Always a mess with Mary B.,” added Trump.
In another tweet in a more exalted tone, the president considered that GM “MUST immediately open its stupidly abandoned plant in Lordstown, Ohio, or other plants, and START PRODUCING RESPIRATORS NOW !!! FORD BEGINS! WITH RESPIRATORS, FAST !!
GM and Ford announced plans days ago to help increase the production of respirators in light of forecasts that the US healthcare system would need thousands of these medical devices for the most seriously ill COVID-19.
Trump’s tweets come amid strong criticism from New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and city mayor of the same name, Bill de Blasio, to the federal government’s response to respirator needs.
Trump stated last night in an interview with Fox News television that he did not believe that New York needed 40,000 respirators, as requested by Cuomo and De Blasio: “You go to big hospitals and they have two respirators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 respirators?'” Trump wondered.
The latest data from John Hopkins University on the spread of COVID-19 in the United States indicates that the country has 86,012 confirmed cases, more than any other country in the world, and 1,301 deaths, with New York being the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States. .
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