My Take | Just who is helping and hurting whom in this pandemic?
- In a world turned upside down, Beijing is helping New York state to secure hundreds of desperately needed ventilators while Washington is robbing special protective masks from Berlin
“Washington has helped secure a thousand ventilators that are badly needed in New York after the state warned it would run out of the equipment within a week as the death toll from the deadly Covid-19 outbreak continued to rise.
“New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the ventilators would arrive within a day, as the number of cases in the state rose to 113,704, with 3,565 deaths. Both Mr Cuomo and Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York City, recently warned that the state’s supply of ventilators could be exhausted within six days. The two men thanked Washington, the White House and US companies such as 3M to help spreadily manufacture and ship over the equipment.”
Meanwhile, “protective medical equipment made by a mainland Chinese manufacturer and bound for Germany was allegedly intercepted in Thailand and diverted back to China, leading a senior German official to accuse Beijing of “modern piracy”.
“According to the German newspaper Tagesspiegel, Berlin ordered 200,000 special FFP2 and FFP3 masks that are used to protect emergency personnel and health care workers from infection.
“Andreas Geisel, Berlin’s interior minister, confirmed that the consignment had been “confiscated” in Bangkok. “We consider that an act of modern piracy,” he said. “You don’t treat your partners like that.”
“Expressing frustration over the seizures, Geisel said that despite the crisis, the “methods of the Wild West” should not prevail, and called on the German government to press China “to stick to international rules”. The mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller, accused Beijing of “lacking solidarity” and behaving “irresponsibly”.”
Okay, I confess I deliberately messed with two news stories, both taken from the Financial Times but reworked by me to make them report the opposite.