Trump's administration wanted to send masks out to every American -- but couldn't make it work

President Donald Trump's administration came up with the idea of recruiting Hanes and Fruit of the Loom to make masks for the 330 million Americans dealing with the coronavirus crisis. As the administration has fumbled its way through the pandemic, they couldn't figure out how to distribute masks either, Axios reported.

During a coronavirus task force meeting, members of the group concluded that if the Center for Disease Control decided to mandate masks, then the least the government could do is provide them for people, a former senior HHS official told Axios. Currently, finding masks is a slog and many people have resolved to make their own masks or purchase them crafted by others on sites like Etsy.

The administration contacted the postal service and began looking into how they'd make it happen. But they couldn't.

“It’s passed from different entities at the White House, and has been a dying a slow death," one person familiar with the situation told Axios.

“Making these masks and getting them out is not complicated. If government leaders think this is too hard, how can we trust them to safely reopen our economy?" the former HHS official noted.

Read the full report at Axios.