No probe is yet initiated by the government to unearth the reason behind the supply of fake N95 masks to public hospitals by a local company during coronavirus pandemic. Expressing utmost surprise, physician leaders have opined that there must a thorough investigation why such an incident has happened and who were involved with it. It has appeared as a big question, how the packets of a product produced in and marketed from the USA used by a Bangladeshi company for packing their substandard products. If the packets with N95 label were printed in Bangladesh, so definitely there was an ill motive behind it. According to a newspaper report, the JMI group that supplied the masks said by way of an explanation that it was mistake they made during packaging. But refuting their claim secretary general of Bangladesh Medical Association, the apex body of professional doctors, said, ‘It will not make any sense unless we get an answer to the question from where the packets of N95 masks came.” Similarly, the Transparency International Bangladesh has also demanded intensive investigation into the matter.
In the name of ensuring protective measures for doctors, the frontline fighters of coronavirus, the Central Medical Stores Depot in March supplied to government hospitals some personal protective equipment that included packets of masks labeled with N95 masks. After opening the packets doctors found 20,600 ordinary face masks in the packets, which were not appropriate for wearing for those who directly treat the corona patients. In the wake of angry protest, the CMSD and its supplier JMI Group in some newspaper advertisements tried to explain that ordinary face masks were wrongly packaged in N95 packets. They claimed it was a ‘packaging mistake’. In the meantime, a number of government hospitals in written or verbally complained to the authorities concerned about the low standard masks after the doctors started becoming infected. On Tuesday, Bangladesh Doctors Foundation (BDF), another forum of physicians, said some 170 doctors — both in public and private hospitals — have been infected with coronavirus in the country.
We do ask the authorities concerned to see whether supplying wrong masks to the doctors was a deliberate mistake or a deliberate corruption. The result of pushing our frontline fighters to extreme danger without proper equipment raises the question if the government is unable to restrain its corrupt ones.
