Distinguished Fellow and Advisory Board Member Tim Greaney’s letter to editor was featured in the New York Times 4/7/2020 Opinion Don’t Play Favorites in Doling Out Supplies to States:

To the Editor:

Re “Trump’s Son-in-Law Puts Himself in Middle of Response” (news article, April 3):

Your report that supplies needed by hospitals to deal with the Covid pandemic were being dispatched to states that had not even submitted requests “based on which governor got Mr. Trump on the telephone” is deeply troubling. Most obviously, allocating scarce resources without oversight and triage by knowledgeable experts puts lives at risk. Moreover, there is a risk of further politicization of the nation’s response to the health care crisis.

With the Department of Health and Human Services preparing to distribute $100 billion of CARES Act funds to hospitals and other health care providers around the country, it is appropriate to worry that the Electoral College map might play a large role in the allocation.

Thomas L. Greaney
Santa Cruz, Calif.
The writer is a law professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law and a former assistant section chief, Antitrust Division, with the Justice Department.