Some in the nursing industry were left "confused" after President Trump appeared to walk back his decision to use the Defense Production Act to combat medical equipment shortages on Wednesday.
Hours after a meeting with industry representatives in which he spoke about “scaling up” supplies, Trump said on Twitter that he had only signed the act “should we need to invoke it in a worst case scenario in the future.”
"It was so disassociated from what he said this morning at the press conference and what he said to us,” said Dr. David Benton, CEO of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, who was at the White House meeting.
Benton said representatives “described to the President how critical [ventilators] are" and expressed “anxiety” about the availability of protective equipment including masks and gowns.
The White House said more equipment was coming, just not under the Defense Production Act. A senior administration official said that the Department of Health and Human Services was working with states and the private sector to facilitate distribution as needed.
“The private sector has stepped up to make sure that we do everything possible to provide supplies to our healthcare workers and first responders, but if more cooperation is needed to address shortages, this order will ensure that the health and medical resources needed are properly distributed,” the official said.
By the numbers: The Department of Homeland Security estimates that should the virus become "very severe," 38 million people will need medical care and 9.6 million will need hospitalization.
Of those, an estimated 2.9 million people will need to be admitted to intensive care units, overwhelming current capacity.