How a frantic trek to a McDonald's parking lot shows the scramble states are facing for supplies

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/04/18/coronavirus-creates-ppe-bidding-war-states-like-illinois-new-york/5144652002/

How a frantic trek to a McDonald’s parking lot shows the scramble states are facing for coronavirus supplies
Courtney Subramanian
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – As the coronavirus crisis tore through the country last month, Illinois Comptroller Susan Mendoza knew she had to act quickly to clinch a deal for 1.5 million masks from China to protect healthcare workers on the front lines of the pandemic.

The vendor needed a $3 million check within hours and Mendoza was worried she might lose out to a Russian competitor who had offered cash for the masks.

So Mendoza’s aide, Ellen Andres, jumped in her car and sped down the expressway to meet the vendor in the parking lot of a McDonald’s in Dwight, Ill. – 126 miles from Springfield, the state capital. After scanning the make and model of the vehicles, Andres found her contact and handed over the check.

"You feel like you have a gun up against your head and if you don't get it done, you're going to lose one and a half million masks," Mendoza recalled. "You feel like you're doing some kind of sketchy drug deal but you're really working hard to try to save people's lives."

The transaction underscores the challenges states have been facing to obtain masks, gloves and other protective gear for healthcare workers as they also try to get their hands on ventilators and test kits. The process has led to tensions between President Donald Trump and governors such as Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York who have been urging the federal government to take the lead role in ordering equipment, a request Trump has rejected.

"Who would have ever thought that the state government, in order to acquire something that keeps people alive, somebody would have to speed down a highway and meet somebody at a McDonald's?" Pritzker said in an interview with USA TODAY.