Defective Chinese masks and kits shipped to countries in dire need

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NBC News showered praise on China last week for shipping medical supplies and coronavirus test kits to countries now grappling with the coronavirus pandemic.

"As U.S. struggles to stem coronavirus, China asserts itself as global leader," an NBC News headline blasted.

The story said:

With Italy in dire need of medical equipment, an economic superpower stepped in to help. No, not the United States. It was China.

But as it turns out, the majority of COVID-19 test kits and N95-like masks manufactured in China and shipped to countries in dire need are defective.

The Netherlands announced on Saturday that they were recalling more than 1 million defective Chinese-made masks, which were nearly deployed to the Dutch medical workforce.

Meanwhile, both Spain and the Czech Republic, which purchased rapid COVID-19 test kits from a Chinese bio company, found that few of the tests actually detected the virus.

The Washington Free Beacon reported:

In Spain, which currently has the fourth-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world, the government purchased 640,000 rapid test kits from China and South Korea as it fights the pandemic. Experts soon discovered, however, that the tests it purchased from Chinese company Bioeasy were only correctly identifying coronavirus cases 30 percent of the time, according to Spain's El Pais.

The Czech Republic also purchased 150,000 rapid test kits from China, and have likewise found problems. One doctor using the tests found that 80 percent of the kits were faulty and has reverted back to the conventional lab tests, which are significantly slower to process.
Turkey and the country of Georgia also had similar issues with the Chinese test kits, according to the Daily Beast.