A company that provided to make life-saving protective masks as the coronavirus began its spread across the U.S. in January was snubbed by government officials.

Michael Bowen, the owner of medical supply business Status Ameritech, told the Department of Health and Person Providers that he might start producing 1.7 million N95 masks a week, only to be denied, The Washington Post first reported

” We still have four like-new N95 production lines,” Bowen emailed a top HHS authorities on Jan. 22, the day the first coronavirus case was detected in the nation. “Reactivating these makers would be really hard and extremely expensive but might be attained in an alarming situation.”

Laura Wolf, director of the company’s Department of Crucial Facilities Defense, responded that the federal government wasn’t “anywhere near responding to those concerns for you yet” in response to Bowen’s deal.

” We are the last significant domestic mask company,” Bowen emailed