Actor Gary Sinise criticized surgical mask manufacturer 3M after reports surfaced that the company was selling masks to foreign entities before distributing in the United States.
“Florida emergency management official says 3M selling masks to foreign countries,” Sinise said on Twitter. “I usually don’t post on things like this, but Hey 3M! This is infuriating! American companies need to be part of the solution. What happened to, “We’re all in this together?”
Florida emergency management official says 3M selling masks to foreign countries.
I usually don’t post on things like this, but Hey 3M! This is infuriating! American companies need to be part of the solution. What happened to, “We’re all in this together”? https://t.co/dnwRtHQvA2— Gary Sinise (@GarySinise) April 3, 2020
Sinise followed up with another message for 3M: “Point being,when American Health Care providers & workers need masks so desperately & they seek 2 purchase them, please 3M, make sure you have not sold them all 2 other countries and Spread them around. R folks need these so they can help our citizens.”
Point being,when American Health Care providers & workers need masks so desperately & they seek 2 purchase them, please 3M, make sure you have not sold them all 2 other countries and Spread them around. R folks need these so they can help our citizens https://t.co/OZun0r8JW0
— Gary Sinise (@GarySinise) April 3, 2020
3M came under fire this week following a report by Tucker Carlson Tonight that the company was giving masks to foreign nationals for cash instead of people in the U.S.
“For the last several weeks, we have had a boiler room chasing down 3M authorized distributors [and] brokers representing that they sell the N95 masks, only get to warehouses that are completely empty,” Jared Moskowitz, head of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management told Tucker Carlson earlier this week. “[We are] being told that our shipments are on cargo planes and the flights don’t even appear. We are chasing ghosts. I just decided to turn up the heat and tell people what is actually happening in the N95 mask space.”
“What I asked 3M is, are they aware their authorized distributors — U.S. companies — are telling me the reason why our orders are being pushed down is because foreign countries are showing up with cash to purchase the orders … not only did they not dispute it, [but] I asked them if they put out any guidance to prevent the behavior, and the answer was no.”
