PROTECTION FROM CORONAVIRUS OR FAKE SENSE OF SAFETY

                     From Europe to South America, US allies are complaining about the superpower's wild west tactics in outbidding or blocking shipments to buyers who have already signed deals for vital medical supplies, faced with changing official opinion and growing confusion among the general public about whether or not masks help to protect people from Coronavirus epidemic, the official stance on the wearing of masks has evolved in recent days, in France and Germany senior officials said the United States was paying for above the market price for medical grade masks from China, on occasion winning contracts through higher bids even after European buyers believed a deal was done and Brazil's Health Minister reported a similar incident, one high level official in German government source said, Money is irrelevant, they pay any price because they are desperate. Americans are on the move, carrying a lot of money. Since the novel Coronavirus was first recorded in China late last year, the pandemic has spread around the world, governments in Europe, the United States and elsewhere are desperately trying to build up supplies for medics, nursing home staff and the public, now with global cases surpassing 1 million and the outbreak exploding in the United States, the competition for precious stocks is intensifying further. But the most spectacular U-turn about masks came from the US President on Friday announcing that health authorities now recommending Americans wear cloth face coverings on a voluntary basis to stem the spread of the virus, he said: with the masks, it's going to be a really voluntary thing. you can do it, you don't have to do it. I'm choosing not to do it, but the guidance from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention CDC doesn't recommend wearing medical grade masks, he also said we signing a directive to stop the export of N95 respirator masks, which provide essential protection for healthcare workers and other US medical equipment, Two of the principal US Coronavirus hot spots, New York and Louisiana reported their biggest jumps in death cases yet on Friday as the White House sent these mixed messages, surging deaths in New York City and New Orleans showed that a wave of lethal Coronavirus expected to overwhelm hospitals, even in relatively affluent, urban areas with extensive healthcare systems has begun to crash down on the United States. One physician at New York City hospital recounted arriving at work on Friday to learn that three of his Coronavirus patients had died that morning, few hours later he had practiced intubation on two others, doctors and nurses many lacking adequate supplies of medical grade face masks and other protective gear, were already confronting an onslaught from the highly contagious Coronavirus, many of the most gravely ill patients were dying alone as medical staff forbade relatives to be with them in their final hours for fear of a further spread of infection. Governors, mayors and physicians have voiced alarm for weeks over crippling scarcities of personal protective gear for first-responders and front line healthcare workers, as well as ventilators and other medical supplies, with the federal government's national strategic stockpile of such equipment nearly depleted, states have been forced essentially to complete against each other on the open market for viral resources, cities across the country have also scrambled  to expand hospital capacity and recruit healthcare professionals out of retirement to meet looming shortages  of sick beds and personnel. New York City, the pandemic's US epicenter has mere days to prepare for the worst of the outbreak, said Mayor Bill de Blasio whose city has suffered more than 3,500 Coronavirus deaths to date nationwide, Blasio said: New York is in an extraordinary race against time, we are dealing with an enemy that is killing thousands of Americans and a lot of people are dying who don't need to die, you can't say, every state for themselves, every city for themselves, that's not America. Renewing his call for the federal government to mobilise the US military, Americans almost all of them under orders to stay home except for essential outings such as food shopping or seeing a doctor, have heard conflicting guidance in recent days about the need for wearing face masks in public.  
US listed multinational 3M Co said Friday that the White House had recorded it to stop all shipments to Canada and Latin America of respirators that manufactures in the United States, despite what 3M called significant humanitarian implications, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the blocking of flow of equipment across the border would be a mistake that could backfire, nothing that the country's healthcare professionals go to work in Detroit every day. In another case, an order of 200,000 masks bound for Germany from 3M factory in China were confiscated in Bangkok, Berlin Secretary of Interior Andreas Geisel said in a statement calling it an act of modern piracy, even in times of global crisis you shouldn't use wild west methods. A US Department of Homeland Security official said that the US companies and the government have been paying above market price for much of the gear purchased overseas, the official who requested anonymity to discuss the matter, said we've gotten our hands on every bit of it that we can, the United States would not stop buying until we have way too much and could still be searching out protective gear abroad through August. Lea Crager, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA, the agency coordinating the search for medical supplies abroad, said disasters often lead to price increases for certain goods, if it causes some sort of a supply chain disruption, you are going to see costs rise for an essential commodity. In Brazil, Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said this week that China had ditched some Brazilian equipment orders when the US government sent more the 20 cargo planes to the country to buy the same products, our purchases, which we expected to complete in order to be able to supply, many were dropped. Brazil had finally succeeded in placing a 228 million Dollars order for equipment, although it will only be delivered in 30 days, a second German source employed by a company now helping Merkel's government to order masks said the last weekend of March had been a turning point and drew a link with the United States' increased presence in the market, contracts no longer guaranteed delivery, the source said: Demand is much bigger than supply. In France, three regional leaders painted a similar picture, Jean Rottner said it was a constant fight to ensure mask orders arrived in his Grand Est region, where the outbreak first took hold before spreading west towards Paris, he said consignments were changing hands at the last minute, on the airport tarmac, the Americans get out their cash and pay three of four times what we have offered. Rottner's counterpart in the greater Paris region, Valerie Pecresse, said she had been beaten to an order by a country with deep pockets, although she did not name the United States, we found supplies a few days ago but failed to buy them after outbid us, they were prepared to pay three times the market price, the French Foreign Ministry said it was verifying the reports but one official doubted that action would be taken, it boils down to market forces, the one who pays the most gets the prize. In France , the Academy of Medicine ruled on Friday that a general public mask should be made compulsory for outings during and after confinement, the French government itself changed its position by announcing the manufacture of alternative masks to used by the public, other than medical ones.