Someone I know was recently collecting money to buy masks for a distressed hospital directly from a factory in China. When asked why the hospital doesn’t just buy the masks themselves, they said this:
“They absolutely should. But hospitals don’t buy from individual factories in China, they buy supplies from catalogues from approved vendors. In the meantime, we can help protect the workers with a short-term donation. Also from what I hear, China has been slowing down “official” export of medical supplies. What I’m doing is placing a private order via DHL that should go through faster.”
If it’s true, this could help explain how PG’s donation would create an incremental benefit rather than just increasing the demand/prices on the limited supply.
“They absolutely should. But hospitals don’t buy from individual factories in China, they buy supplies from catalogues from approved vendors. In the meantime, we can help protect the workers with a short-term donation. Also from what I hear, China has been slowing down “official” export of medical supplies. What I’m doing is placing a private order via DHL that should go through faster.”
If it’s true, this could help explain how PG’s donation would create an incremental benefit rather than just increasing the demand/prices on the limited supply.