Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told the Chicago Sun Times Wednesday that Gov. J.B. Pritzker is calling the CEOs of major airlines to organize an airlift to haul personal protection equipment from China to Illinois.

Durbin also said Pritzker told him about an Illinois company with COVID-19 supplies to sell – yet was “playing hard to get” while seeking a better price from another state for this equipment now referred to in shorthand simply as PPE.

For weeks now, Pritzker and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have been publicly outraged that states are competing against themselves – and the federal government – in bidding for desperately needed masks, gowns, ventilators and other supplies as the coronavirus pandemic spreads.

Durbin said the Illinois company was profiteering on the disaster and that was “unacceptable.”

This comes as the Financial Times reports that several countries in or neighboring the EU have rejected Chinese-made coronavirus testing kits and protective equipment as substandard, raising concerns about the quality of supplies. The Netherlands, Spain and Turkey have all claimed there have been problems with products including masks and tests, as rising confirmed cases of Covid-19 infection in Europe increase dependence on Chinese imports.