U.S. pays premium to third-party vendors for N95 masks
THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020
WASHINGTON - The Trump administration has awarded bulk contracts to third-party vendors in recent weeks in a scramble to obtain N95 respirator masks, and the government has paid the companies more than $5 per unit, nearly eight times what it would have spent in January and February when U.S. intelligence agencies warned of a looming global pandemic, procurement records show.