FEMA says new ventilators promised by Trump won't be available until June: report

FEMA told the House Oversight Committee this week that most of the 100,000 ventilators that President Trump promised for the fight against coronavirus won't be available until June, according to POLITICO.

"FEMA officials, according to a readout of a pair of briefings by the panel's Democrats, indicated that a shortage of ventilators would worsen by the middle of this month before the coronavirus outbreak peaks," POLITICO's Kyle Cheney writes. "FEMA indicated there were just 9,500 ventilators in the national stockpile, with just 3,200 more expected by the week of April 13, the tail end of what Trump described recently as a 'painful two weeks' as the outbreak is expected to worsen."

The shortage of ventilators could make an already bad situation worse when it comes to coronavirus deaths. Trump has shifted the blame for the shortage on state governors, accusing them of having an "insatiable appetite" for equipment they don't necessarily need.

Read the full report over at POLITICO.