The Department of Defense is looking to acquire up to 100,000 Human Remains Pouches, the military-grade body bags used in war zones and disaster areas, on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which plans to reserve them for civilians as the coronavirus pandemic continues to claim American lives.
According to Bloomberg News, the Pentagon plans to allocate an unspecified number of pouches to FEMA from a body-bag stockpile at the Department of Defense, which retains about 50,000 of them. The news agency also reported that the Department of Defense is also looking to purchase additional body bags, but that order has not yet been placed, according to a person familiar with the matter. It’s unclear how many of the body bags the department plans to purchase, and how many body bags will be diverted from the stockpile.
The company that supplies the Department of Defense with the Human Remains Pouches is currently trying to “assess it’s manufacturing capabilities,” reports the news agency. A spokesperson for FEMA told the news agency that they were preparing for “mortuary contingencies” as part of a “prudent planning” effort.”
The report comes approximately 24 hours after President Trump warned the American public to prepare for a “hell of a bad two weeks.”
“As a nation we’re going to have a really rough two weeks. Our strength will be tested and our endurance will be tried,” Trump said during a coronavirus press conference on Tuesday. “This could be a hell of a bad two weeks. This is going to be a very bad two or maybe even three weeks. This is going to be three weeks like we’ve never seen before.”
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, told NBC News on Monday that the Trump administration expects between 100,000 and 200,000 American fatalities, even if the country engages in social-distancing “almost perfectly.”
“I think everyone understands now that you can go from five to 50 to 500 to 5000 cases very quickly,” said Dr. Birx in the interview. “I think in some of the metro areas we were late in getting people to follow the 15-day guidelines.”
“We’ve looked at the Italy data with their self-isolation, and that’s where we come up with if we do things together well, almost perfectly, we could get in the range of 100,000 to 200,000 fatalities. We don’t even want to see that,” said Dr. Birx.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House coronavirus expert, has maintained some optimism about the projected fatalities, saying “this is a number we need to anticipate, but we don’t necessarily have to accept it as being inevitable.”
As The Daily Wire previously reported, President Trump provided updated social-distancing guidelines on Sunday, and also predicted that the country could “expect” to begin the recovery process by June 1.
“I want the American people to know that your selfless inspiring and valiant efforts are saving countless lives,” Trump said. “You are making the difference. The modeling estimates that the peak in death rate is likely to hit in two weeks.”
“Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won,” Trump continued. “That would be the greatest loss of all. Therefore, the next two weeks and during this period, it’s very important that everyone strongly follow the guidelines, have to follow the guidelines that our great vice president holds up a lot.”
“I want every citizen in our country to take heart and confidence in the fact that we have the best medical minds in the world, tackling this disease,” said the president. “We have the best scientists, the best researchers, the best talent, anywhere working night and day to protect your family and loved ones and to overcome this pandemic. With the grace of god, we’re rising to the occasion.”