States must not depend on federal government

Our Gov. J.B. Pritzker during the daily COVID-19 briefings is complaining that our President Donald Trump is not sending Illinois as many medical supplies as J.B. has ordered.

For example J.B. says he ordered 10 million N95 masks but only received 367,700 N95 masks.

I would like to list some historical facts that affected the shortage of medical supplies. In 2009 there was the H1N1 flu pandemic during which the federal stockpile distributed 85 million N95 masks. The stockpile was not replenished to at least the level of the H1N1 flu quantities during the following seven years of Obama's presidency. We will never know what happened with the money allotted to replenish the stockpile.

Last week the Department of Health And Human Services said there were only 12 million N95 masks in the stockpile when the pandemic started. In 2009 a total of 4,000 Americans died of the H1N1 flu. As of today 11,000 Americans have already died of the COVID-19 virus and possibly twice as many will die by the time this pandemic is over.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker wanted 10 million N95 masks to be sent to Illinois out of the 12 million total in the stockpile. This is not only unrealistic but also not very neighborly considering there are 49 other states that would have to distribute 2 million N95 masks among the rest. President Trump said repeatedly that each state needs to get their own protective equipment and not depend solely on the government.

Dan Sokolowski

Elgin