Governors are trying any method they can think of — contacting FEMA, making Twitter pleas, calling Trump and going to the media.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis was pleading with the federal government to send ventilators.
The state was starting to see hundreds of new coronavirus cases pop up each day, and Polis, a Democrat, worried that hospitals wouldn’t have enough life-saving ventilators to deal with the looming spike.
So he made an official request for ventilators through the Federal Emergency Management System, which is managing the effort. That went nowhere. He wrote to Vice President Mike Pence, leader of the White House’s coronavirus task force. That didn’t work. He tried to purchase supplies himself. The federal government swooped in and bought them. Continue reading.