Exclusive: White House kept FDA in the dark on Russian ventilators for New York and New Jersey

FILE PHOTO: A shipment containing medical aid from the United States, including 50 ventilators, is carried after being unloaded from a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster transport plane at Vnukovo International Airport amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Moscow, Russia May 21, 2020. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool/File Photo

(Reuters) - When U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to accept a shipment of ventilators from Russian President Vladimir Putin at the height of the coronavirus outbreak, the White House did not alert the FDA as it headed to New York and New Jersey, Reuters has learned.

Instead, the Food and Drug Administration heard about the arrival of the shipment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on March 31st, the day before the 45 Aventa-M ventilators were delivered, the health regulator told Reuters.