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The federal government’s haphazard approach to distributing its limited supplies has left states trying everything — filling out lengthy FEMA applications, calling Trump, contacting Pence, sending messages to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and trade adviser Peter Navarro, who are both leading different efforts to find supplies, according to local and states officials in more than half dozen states. They’re even asking mutual friends to call Trump or sending him signals on TV and Twitter. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. “This is not something that we should ever be faced with,” Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, said in an interview. “It really is the federal government's responsibility to build those stockpiles, and distribute those during the time of crisis.” (Kumar and Bade, 4/13)

The governor of Maryland pushed back against President Donald Trump's claim at his latest briefing that states are in "good shape" with ventilators and protective equipment. Republican Gov. Larry Hogan acknowledged that states are better off than they were a few weeks ago, but "I think to say that everybody's completely happy and that we have everything we need -- it's not quite accurate," he said on ABC's "This Week" Sunday. (Robinson, 4/12)

Last month, as a deadly new virus swept over the globe, one Canadian defense contractor predicted on an earnings call that it would lead to a big business opportunity in the U.S. Thanks to the White House, that bet paid off just a few weeks later in a $96 million no-bid deal. In an unusual move, even in times of disaster, the White House stepped into the federal purchasing process, ordering the Federal Emergency Management Agency to award a contract to AirBoss of America. The Trump administration has rushed through hundreds of deals to address the pandemic without the usual oversight, more than $760 million reported as of this week, but the AirBoss transaction is the single largest no-bid purchase, a ProPublica analysis of federal purchasing data found. (McSwane and Torbati, 4/10)

California, Oregon and Washington have more ventilators than they can use. As the nation struggles to scrounge up the lifesaving machines for hospitals overrun with Covid-19 patients, these three Western states recently shipped 1,000 spares to New York and other besieged neighbors to the East. “All NYC needs is love …. From CA,” a worker scrawled in Magic Marker on a ventilator shipping box, shown in a video posted on Twitter by the governor of California, Gavin Newsom. The ongoing effort of three West Coast states to come to the aid of more hard-hit parts of the nation has emerged as the most powerful indication to date that the early intervention of West Coast governors and mayors might have mitigated, at least for now, the medical catastrophe that has befallen New York and parts of the Midwest and South. (Nagourney and Martin, 4/13)

Assembly-line workers at America’s largest auto makers, ordered to turn their skills from vehicles to ventilators, must first master tweezers and tiny screwdrivers. That is one of the many steps ahead in the race to convert car plants to medical-supply factories before the coronavirus pandemic reaches its peak in the U.S. General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. hope to head off a shortage of the lifesaving machines but have only weeks to deliver them. At a Ford engineering facility in Dearborn, Mich., engineers plastered a conference-room wall with yellow sticky notes last week, mocking up a factory layout to produce the machines. Some only weeks ago had been immersed in the launch of the new Ford Bronco SUV. (Colias, 4/12)

As health officials around the world push to get more ventilators to treat coronavirus patients, some doctors are moving away from using the breathing machines when they can. The reason: Some hospitals have reported unusually high death rates for coronavirus patients on ventilators, and some doctors worry that the machines could be harming certain patients.The evolving treatments highlight the fact that doctors are still learning the best way to manage a virus that emerged only months ago. They are relying on anecdotal, real-time data amid a crush of patients and shortages of basic supplies. (Stobbe, 4/13)

State guidelines to help hospitals decide who would get a ventilator if the medical system becomes overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients could disproportionately leave people from already disadvantaged groups to die, according to a letter from hundreds of front-line health care workers. (Rosen, 4/12)