I have Issues with this story. And this is not the first one I have read like this, either. All the stories seem on the surface to be good, but then I get to the practical part, and my flags go up: I've worked in supply chain logistics for a long time. Here's how this works: 1. Jose goes to MyMedicalSupplier.com 2. Inputs his username and password 3. Goes to the product catalog, and selects items to buy 4. Places the order. Gets confirmation. 5. Automated systems charge the card on file (or P.O.) 6. Warehouse gets a packing order, packs the supplies, ships 7. Shipper picks up package, and eventually delivers. But Jose is saying that after Step 5, he gets notification from the supplier that the order has been redirected somewhere else. For that to happen, someone had to see/know that Jose had placed the order, who Jose is, and who he is buying for. Without going off the rails and conspiracy looniness about ecommerce site security, etc., that means that a human at the medical supplier is in touch with the Federal Government, and informing them of the purchase BEFORE fulfilling the order. Almost all of these systems are mostly automated - payment, order issuance, packing list creation, warehousing, etc. - and interrupting the flow of the process would break some system in the chain. For example, at my company, someone enters an order into our CRM system, the order is automatically transferred into our ERP system where the card is automatically charged, and a packing list is automatically printed at our fulfillment center. If someone stopped the order after it was entered into CRM and before it got into the ERP system, the systems would literally shit the bed... the CRM would freak out because it didn't get ANY charge info back or confirmation of the packing list being created, because it is hard-coded to expect these things. If the order was stopped in the ERP system, same thing. The CRM wouldn't get confirmations, automated email generation would hang, and the ERP system itself would shit the bed when generating daily or weekly reports, because there would be incomplete orders in a "middle state" that is technically impossible for the system to be in. So. Back to Jose and his order being snarfed up by "someone". HOW? Does the Trump Administration actually have a mole at EVERY medical supply company that is secretly telling the IG about every tiny order, allowing the IG and their team to do their "data analysis on population and need in the area of operations where the customer is ordering from", and then either letting the order go, or redirecting it elsewhere? And was Jose's account credited back the charge? Or are they out the money? And how did the medical supplier print a new pick list, manifest, and bill of lading, if there is no traceable order in the system for where these supplies are being re-routed to? And what/who did the medical supplier charge for the supplies? A card? (If so, whose name in on the card?) An account on file? (If so, which account?) There is some serious journalistic diligence missing here. Administrative details are where all nefarious plans fall apart, and where nogoodniks are exposed. And I don't see the pertinent details here... just a "magic hand" somehow reaching into the systems at the medical supplier and mysteriously teleporting equipment out of a warehouse to an undisclosed location. I wanna see the bill of lading. The invoice. That shit has the gory details I want to know. "...Jose Camacho, who heads the Texas Assn. of Community Health Centers, said his group was trying to purchase a small order of just 20,000 masks when his supplier reported that the order had been taken..."
Speaking as a buyer of medical supplies: 1) kb calls up his rep at Henry Schein 2) rep says "hey how's tricks we got some caviwipes in how many cases do you want I need to know now" 3) kb sez "we can use two cases" 4) Rep puts kb down for two cases of cavi-wipes 5) Rep calls up Metrex, tells them to drop ship two cases of Cavi-wipes to kb 6) Metrex literally puts this box on a truck: If FEMA wanted cavi-wipes, they could sit outside of Metrex and seize every box. Or they could seize every box going to Washington. Or they could seize every box going Fedex rather than UPS, because Fedex goes to the West Coast while UPS goes to the East Coast. 7) Metrex tells Henry Schein that FEMA seized 400 cases of Cavi-Wipes 8) I call up my rep five days later because I"m busy, she's busy, and we weren't expecting the cavi-wipes immediately 9) Rep calls up Metrex, Metrex says "we had a bunch of shit seized by FEMA, we're still figuring out what" 10) Rep and Metrex figure out that my shit got seized by FEMA and tell me Note that this hasn't happened yet. But medical equipment isn't shipped like porn, it says right on the goddamn side of the box what's in it. The boxes go on pallets that are likewise labeled. So if there's a medical supply warehouse, every pallet says what's in it and where it's going. It's not rocket science.
So all FEMA has to do is jack the drop-shipper's shipment. Then everyone up and down the line gets fucked. I'm surprised to hear that medical supplies work on the drop shipping model. I'd have figured that market was pretty well run by organizations that own the whole logistics chain, once the stuff leaves China.
St. Joe's in Bellingham lost a bunch of COVID tests just today. The materials seized from PeaceHealth include vital test kit materials that are needed to run in-house analyzer machines, PeaceHealth Manager of Public Affairs Jeremy Rush told The Bellingham Herald in an email. Those machines were purchased specifically for COVID-19 testing in PeaceHealth hospitals, Rush reported. “Our analyzers remain idle, while we continue to send specimens to outside laboratory testing sites, prioritizing labs based on the shortest turnaround times,” Rush wrote. Hey ahosai is St. Joe's busy right now?““It’s incredibly frustrating,” PeaceHealth Chief Operating Officer Richard DeCarlo told the Times. “We had put wheels in motion with testing and protective equipment to allow us to secure and protect our staff and our patients.”
I've been judging how busy the hospital is by the number of medevac helicopters I hear every day. Yesterday it was two, today none. I did see a very strange procession of ambulances, fire trucks and police cars heading to St. Joe yesterday. There were at least 20 in total, all with flashing lights but no sirens and they didn't seem to be in a rush. As they were passing by a helicopter (non-medevac and non-LE) was hovering about 500' overhead.
My assumption reading the piece is that individual orders aren't being swallowed up so much as a warehouse has a stock and tells the customer so. And then sometime between an order being placed and fulfilled the feds use their power under the defense whatever it's called act to say, "All your stock of such-and-such item belongs to us," meaning that Jose's supply and everyone else who ordered from that supplier is gone in an instant, rather than any specific order being "redirected." Just an assumption.So. Back to Jose and his order being snarfed up by "someone".
It seems to be more order-specific, reading the article. Places that are designated as "approved" (aka - Trump country) don't have their orders seized... they get their merch. It's the others that get it snarfed... which leads to the very practical business problems I talked about...