In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, California’s cupboards were bare.

The state’s hospitals were running short on masks, gowns, gloves and other personal protective equipment. Nurses picketed outside their hospitals, demanding more gear. At one East Bay hospital last spring, nurses donned garbage bags in lieu of protective gowns, a scene that was repeated at other hospitals around the country.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration threw hundreds of millions of dollars at the problem, signing no-bid contracts with suppliers around the world in an effort to catch up — contracts that occasionally brought the governor grief as the promised goods didn’t always show up promptly.

source: sacbee.com