Fake news over nothing.
Nobody is under any obligation to place an order for anything with any one particular company.
Companies like MyPillow.com were far easier to work with on face masks.
[See bold paragraph finding at end] Well, it seems like the fed and state govs were desperate for them:
U.S. pays premium to third-party vendors for N95 masks Isaac Stanley-Becker, Desmond Butler and Nick Miroff, The Washington Post Published 5:04 pm PDT, Wednesday, April 15, 2020
WASHINGTON - The Trump administration has awarded bulk contracts to third-party vendors in recent weeks in a scramble to obtain N95 respirator masks, and the government has paid the companies more than $5 per unit, nearly eight times what it would have spent in January and February when U.S. intelligence agencies warned of a looming global pandemic, procurement records show.
Administration officials leaped into the fray late, then embarked on a voracious spending spree. Though U.S. federal agencies made a small number of relatively modest purchases before the second half of March, the government has ordered more than $600 million worth of masks since then.
Large U.S. companies such as Honeywell and 3M have received the biggest orders, but the Trump administration also has signed high-dollar deals with third-party vendors selling masks for many times the standard price. The Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded a $55 million contract for N95s this month to Panthera Worldwide LLC, which is in the business of tactical training. One of its owners testified last year that Panthera's parent company had not had employees since May 2018, according to the sworn testimony.
The price that FEMA is paying Panthera per mask, about $5.50, is significantly higher than what the government pays companies such as 3M, which charges as little as 63 cents per N95 mask, with an average cost of about $1.50 for more advanced models, according to a price index. Prestige Ameritech, the largest domestic mask manufacturer, is charging FEMA about 80 cents per mask for the government's order of 12 million N95 respirators, part of a $9.5 million contract that started April 7.(https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/U-S-pays-premium-to-third-party-vendors-for-N95-15203741.php)
3 million masks ordered by Massachusetts were confiscated in ... www.wcvb.com › article › 3-million-masks-ordered-by... Apr 2, 2020 - "Around the time that we had our 3 million masks that we had ordered through BJs confiscated in the port of New York, at that point it became pretty clear to us. ... Seizure led to operation to obtain masks from China ... plan to purchase over 1 million N95 masks for Massachusetts health care workers
Note in this report Wednesday, April 15, 2020 WaPo states that "Prestige Ameritech, the largest domestic mask manufacturer, is charging FEMA about 80 cents per mask for the government's order of 12 million N95 respirators, part of a $9.5 million contract that started April 7." However now WaPo is stating "In the end, the government did not take Bowen up on his offer. Even today, production lines that could be making more than 7 million masks a month sit dormant."
The WaPo "end' does not sound like the end to me.