(Reuters) - Brian Kolfage, a Florida military veteran, recently convinced Americans to donate millions of dollars for a privately built wall on the U.S. southern border. Now he has jumped into a new venture: hawking millions of protective face masks that are in critically short supply during the coronavirus pandemic.
About a month ago, Kolfage formed a business called America First Medical, which offers on its website and in social media pitches to broker large-volume sales of high-grade masks known as N95s. He said he charges about $4 each - several times the pre-pandemic prices but a few dollars less than some hospitals, nursing homes and first responders are now paying.
Though he hasn’t yet found buyers, Kolfage says he’s found masks all over the world, including stockpiles hidden away in warehouses in Japan and Eastern Europe. If a deal goes through, he will collect a commission between 1% and 3%, depending on the size of the order, he said.
He said he’s performing a public service. “We’re the ones out there kissing the frogs and doing all the work that these hospitals and others can’t do,” Kolfage, 38, told Reuters. “We’re the ones making these connections. If the hospital wants to pay the money, that’s up to them.”
Kolfage aims to be one of the new mask middlemen. As the novel coronavirus has spread around the world, an improvised, chaotic market has sprung up. Brokers claim to have access to tens or even hundreds of millions of masks – generally outside the normal supply channels and at prices much higher than the former retail price of about $1 each.
High-volume deals - even with low-percentage commissions - could bring big paydays for the middlemen. And these brokers could help ease critical shortages if they succeed in encouraging manufacturers and traders sitting on scarce supplies to sell them where they’re needed.
But the frenzy also has broken down standard quality controls, opening the market to an influx of masks of uncertain origin and effectiveness, medical suppliers and healthcare industry officials say. As supplies run ever lower, hospitals and nursing homes are being deluged with offers, and some say they have no choice but to pursue the promising leads while hoping to sidestep the scams.
The hot commodity in the mask trade is the N95 device, sturdier than surgical masks and better able to filter out much smaller particles such as the coronavirus. Health experts say lower-quality or ill-fitting masks are more likely to let airborne pathogens through, exposing healthcare workers to a virus that has killed nearly 39,000 people across the globe and infected close to 800,000.
Reuters spoke to five new mask brokers, three in the United States and two in China, which is the world’s largest mask manufacturer and accounts for about half of global production. These middlemen described a wild marketplace, in which they seek to quickly connect sellers and buyers before competitors can move in and sell stockpiles out from under them.
