Berlin – A staggering amount of taxpayer money went up in smoke – literally. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, GermanyS federal health ministry vastly over-ordered protective masks, and now, a significant portion of those masks are being incinerated, unused. This revelation, stemming from a response to a parliamentary inquiry, highlights a massive procurement miscalculation during a time of global crisis.
Many more masks were ordered then were needed. Now millions of them are being burned.
thomas Frey/dpa
Billions Spent, Millions Wasted: The Mask Procurement Debacle
Germany purchased nearly six billion masks at the start of the pandemic,