Trash bags stuffed full of used medical gloves, some visibly soiled, some even blood-stained, litter the floor of a warehouse on the outskirts of Bangkok.
Nearby
is a plastic bowl, filled with blue dye and a few gloves. Thai
officials say migrant laborers had been trying to make the gloves look
new again, when Thai health authorities raided the facility in December.
There
are many more warehouses just like it still in operation today in
Thailand -- trying to cash in on the demand for medical-grade nitrile
gloves, which exploded with the coronavirus pandemic. And they're boxing
up millions of these sub-standard gloves for export to the United
States, and countries around the world amid a global shortage that will
take years to ease.
A
months-long CNN investigation has found that tens of millions of
counterfeit and second-hand nitrile gloves have reached the United
States, according to import records and distributors who bought the
gloves -- and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Criminal
investigations are underway by the authorities in the US and Thailand.
Death penalty should be utilized
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