Covid makes for strange bedfellows: How an arms dealer failed Poland in its attempt to source ventilators - World dawn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dawn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
When the coronavirus pandemic surged across Europe in April and hospitals were desperate for ventilators, Poland’s government turned to an unlikely supplier: an arms dealer.
Andrzej Izdebski, 69, has helped smuggle rifles and ammunition across borders, worked for Poland’s Communist secret services, and claims to have sold dietary supplements to North Korea.
Months later, as a second coronavirus wave strains Poland’s hospitals and raises its COVID-19 death toll, Izdebski has provided less than a fifth of the 1,241 ventilators the government agreed to buy for about $53 million, the government and Izdebski say.
Izdebski’s struggle to deliver ventilators to Poland opens a window into the extraordinary lengths countries have gone to obtain the devices in the pandemic. While wealthier countries raced to secure the breathing machines from big manufacturers in China, Europe and the United States, poorer countries like Poland had a choice when the pandemic swept the globe: go on a
INSIGHT-Need a ventilator? Polish arms dealer has plenty by Reuters
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By Anna Koper
WARSAW, Dec 17 (Reuters) - When the coronavirus pandemic surged across Europe in April and hospitals were desperate for ventilators, Poland s government turned to an unlikely supplier: an arms dealer.
Andrzej Izdebski, 69, has helped smuggle rifles and ammunition across borders, worked for Poland s Communist secret services, and claims to have sold dietary supplements to North Korea.
Months later, as a second coronavirus wave strains Poland s hospitals and raises its COVID-19 death toll, Izdebski has provided less than a fifth of the 1,241 ventilators the government agreed to buy for about $53 million, the government and Izdebski say.