We’ll take them.

[jon-nyc]

[jon-nyc]

Wow.

[mark]

wtf is our federal government doing? Anything?

[LuFins Dad]

@mark Well, they sent about 4500 ventilators to NY, along with various PPE. FEMA was instrumental in turning the Javitz Center into a 1000 bed hospital which is being manned by military medical personnel. They sent a naval hospital ship to take care of all non-COVID related problems and emergencies. They’ve stopped the export of PPE manufactured in the US, and cajoled, persuaded, and coerced many other companies to start manufacturing ventilators and PPE. They are running several major drug trials, removed numerous restrictions and copious amounts of red tape to get out of the way of private industry and their own efforts.

What else would you like them to do? Especially if you’re a small government libertarian?

[mark]

When China and Oregon are sending vents to NY, they are obviously not doing enough.

And don't profess to know what is in my mind. I have never been a member of the libertarian party. Thanks.

[Copper]

Since when is it the federal government's job to insure everyone has a ventilator?

Sorry, I just don't buy it.

A few weeks ago most people had never heard the word ventilator.

[mark]

@Copper it's not. It is however their job to protect the people. All the people, not just those who are nice to them.

[Jolly]

You cannot prepare for what you do not know.

[LuFins Dad]

@mark YEAH, so the federal government should pull them out of their ass... Tada, magic ass ventilators... Don’t hand me that bull. There’s been no one on this forum more against wasteful government spending and taxation than you. And having 30K ventilators in the national stockpile would have seemed wasteful. Hell, it still does

[mark]

no it doesn't What's wasteful is all the money wasted on military spending, the war on drugs, etc.

You obviously have not been paying attention to me. I freely admit that I used to think like that.

After much research and thought over the past 15 years, I no longer think like that.

[jon-nyc]

Doesn’t seem wasteful to me. What is that, a couple F35s? A few minutes of farm subsidy?

[Axtremus]

@Jolly said in We’ll take them.:

You cannot prepare for what you do not know.

Indeed, I empathize with that sentiment.
This pandemic, we need ventilators and N95 masks.
The next pandemic? Who knows. Maybe dialysis machines, maybe pacemakers, maybe anything. Hard to successfully predict what to stockpile. Imagine justifying to Congress to get funding to stockpile 4x more dialysis machines than the total number of dialysis machines the country has today, I doubt it would be successful.

[Larry]

Cuomo is a damned fool. The reason he doesn't have enough ventilators is because when he had the chance to buy them he chose to spend the money on a solar energy project. Now he wants to piss and moan because the feds have 50 states they have to deal with and arent jumping to cover his ass for him when he whines.

I feel bad for the victims in New York, but they need to know the reason they don't have what they need is because their governor fucked up, not the federal government or Trump.

[jon-nyc]

Actually all three fucked up, and each contributed to the tragedy unfolding here now.

[LuFins Dad]

Ax gets it in one.

This isn’t anybody’s fault. This is shit that happened and you deal with it as best you can while it’s happening.

The doomsday model called for N.Y. needing 9000 ventilators. So far the doomsday model is running about 50% of reality, which would put the need at 4500 ventilators if that holds true. The US Government has sent 4500 ventilators so far (of which most or all are still in storage because they aren’t needed at this time) and are looking for more.

As it is, does NY even have the technicians and personnel to run the ventilators they have? From what I have read, that’s the real issue.

[Larry]

@jon-nyc said in We’ll take them.:

Actually all three fucked up, and each contributed to the tragedy unfolding here now.

Trump didn't fuck up. While he was trying to get China to let him help them get the virus under control in China, the democrats were busy trying to impeach him. Later, when he banned travel to and from China, the democrats were accusing him of being a xenophobic racist. Pelosi was telling everyone to go to Chinatown and party. Deblasio was telling people it was no worse than the common cold, and to get out and go to restaurants , etc. Cuomo was busy telling people it was no big deal, get out and have fun, and telling the medical community they weren't getting any money. Every single medical expert involved since has made it clear that Trump has done an excellent job and his actions have saved thousands of lives.

So don't even try to hang any of this on him.

[jon-nyc]

Larry. I’ve commended him for the travel restrictions (though American, United, and Delta had already suspended most flights, but I’m sure it did have some effect at the margin).

Let’s imagine a hypothetical world where they had maximum effect. The flights were operating and full the day before the restrictions, and because of Trump’s actions, they were all halted.

How did he use that time that he bought us?

[Jolly]

@LuFins-Dad said in We’ll take them.:

@mark YEAH, so the federal government should pull them out of their ass... Tada, magic ass ventilators... Don’t hand me that bull. There’s been no one on this forum more against wasteful government spending and taxation than you. And having 30K ventilators in the national stockpile would have seemed wasteful. Hell, it still does

There's a lot of TADA! wishful hindsight among many people who know how government works, and are projecting some alternate reality about how fast government can move within our federal system.

Shucks, Hitler and Stalin bitched about people in their government not moving or producing fast enough...And they executed people to help speed things along...