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Coronavirus, half a million swabs from a company from Brescia to the United States
19 March 2020, by GIANLUCA DI FEO

Products in the outbreak area of the epidemic in Italy would have sufficed for the needs of the
whole North. The diagnostic kits were instead sold to the US and transferred by military aircraft.
The company: everything is regular, there is no shortage. Did anyone in our country know this?

The whole world says it's a war. And for the first time in history it seems to be everyone against
everyone, without any alliances. Each nation thinks for itself, using every means to guarantee
the winning weapons against the virus: tampons, masks, respirators. So the United States
managed to buy half a million kits to detect the infection in Brescia. And they moved them to
Memphis in a military plane.

America celebrated on Wednesday for the arrival of a load of tampons, just half a million
pieces. An impressive supply: in our country since the beginning of the epidemic, just over 100
thousand have been made. But that supply landed in the USA came from the American base in
Aviano, not far from Pordenone. Yes, in Italy there was a colossal reserve of diagnostic tests,
available a few tens of kilometers from the epicenter of Covid-19: tools that our regions look
for in all ways to stem the spread of the disease but that they cannot find .

The announcement of the transatlantic expedition was made on Instagram, together with the
photo of the hold of an Air Force C-17 Globemaster quadrireactor full of containers with kits.
Then the post was removed. But the news found official confirmation in the words of the
Pentagon spokesman, Jonathan Hoffman. "There are multiple elements to take the test -
explained General Paul Friedrichs, of the central medical command - The first are the swabs
that are used to collect the samples from people, then there is the liquid where to develop
them. This is what we have brought from Italy. " The general said that the materials are
produced in the US and abroad, without specifying where they were found. And he added:
"This is a great example of how nations work together to ensure that global questions are
answered."

And half a million tests have been produced in Italy. From a company in Brescia, the city that in
these hours is at the forefront of the battle against the disease: Copan Diagnostics. Ambassador
Lewis Einsenberg confirms this in the Republic: "We are delighted that the Italian company
Copan Diagnostics continues to produce swabs for the Covid-19 tests in sufficient quantities to
satisfy requests in Italy and sales abroad. The private sector Italian contributes to saving lives in
the world. I congratulate you on this effort. " And he specifies: "The United States will continue
to purchase these tampons from Italian companies according to its needs. The United States
and Italy continue to work together in close collaboration."
The news appears surprising. A Lombard company had enough swabs available for the needs of
the whole North and instead it was sold across the ocean. Did they beat us on the price? There
is a wealth of information circulating about the US government's efforts to stock up against
Covid-19. The White House, for example, would have offered very high sums to obtain the
exclusive vaccine tested by the German CureVac laboratories: an operation blocked by the
Berlin intervention followed by that of the European Union which has allocated 80 million to
prevent the patent leak. In these hours, there are world auctions to buy even rising stock of
masks and respirators at increasing prices: an economic challenge, in which the strongest wins.
Like in war. But without any alliances they hold.

At the beginning it was thought that the swabs came from American military bases. In Aviano
there is a large deposit of medical materials, accumulated in view of a conflict. It's the Medical
War Reserve Materiel of the 31st U.S. flock: a video from last December shows a gigantic
hangar full of components for field hospitals, diagnostic instruments and medicines. All ready to
be boarded on planes and arrive anywhere in a few hours. Another escort should be at Camp
Darby, just outside Livorno, the largest arsenal located outside the States. Both strategic
warehouses in the Pentagon documents are indicated, albeit at the last point of the priorities,
as usable for "host nations". That is, Italy. But nothing has been made available to our country.
Quoting Winston Churchill, in his book the legendary general Jim Mattis, former head of the
Pentagon, wrote: "There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, fighting without
allies". It was a criticism of Donald Trump's foreign policy. A warning that also applies in the war
against the virus.

But the reality is different. The tampons were ready in Brescia, in the heart of the epidemic,
where doctors and nurses struggle to stop the disease before it overwhelms Milan, where
thousands of people risk infection every day. Was our government aware of this?

Copan Diagnostics replies that "everything happened in the light of the sun. We did not have to
warn the Italian authorities: they are products for free sale. And we are a leading company that
exports all over the world. There is no shortage of tampons: In recent weeks in Italy we have
sold over a million and we can satisfy all requests. The problem is not the kits, but the
laboratories to analyze them ". And he specifies: "That stock was not purchased by the US
government, but by private companies and American distributors. They transported it on a
military flight only because there were no commercial aircraft available".

Websites that track traffic in the skies have found that the jet of tampons took off from Aviano
on Monday March 16 in the early afternoon. At that time, almost 30,000 cases and 2,158
deaths were registered in Italy. In the United States there were only 86 deaths and 4,500
positives.