Corona Virus

[stirs]

5800 new cases today so far for US

4500 of them in NYC

Ground Zero for sure

[LinvilleGorge]

I still see a lot of people talking like this is all going to pass and we're going to be back to normal in a matter of weeks. That's delusional. All you have to do is look at this $6 TRILLION stimulus bill that looks set to pass. That's essentially one third of our entire GDP in a stimulus package. That sends a very loud and very clear message that we're going to be dealing with this for a a loooooong time.

[stirs]

6 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I still see a lot of people talking like this is all going to pass and we're going to be back to normal in a matter of weeks. That's delusional. All you have to do is look at this $6 TRILLION stimulus bill that looks set to pass. That's essentially one third of our entire GDP in a stimulus package. That sends a very loud and very clear message that we're going to be dealing with this for a a loooooong time.

If not an election year, it might have been 4 trillion, but nobody wants to look frugal at this point.  2 trillion is coming for sure, but what about the other 4?

Edited March 25, 2020 by stirs

[stirs]

New thread coming?

https://www.foxnews.com/health/hantavirus-kills-man-coronavirus-hit-china-32-others-tested-report

[Wes21]

31 minutes ago, stirs said:

The Fed is a genie, you rub their belly and poof. 500k ventilators appear.  You know, cause everyone knew for the last 50 years that they should have warehouses full of these.

This is not anything that any gov has planned for.  Since budgets mean nothing anymore, I guess they can buy warehouses and put 400 million rolls of toilet paper in them for the next unseen virus, in case it affects the GI tract.

And so on and so on.

I am not a Trump fan, nor did I vote for him, but the finger pointing, with no thought beyond Twitter "knowledge" is pretty awesome to watch.

And then decades from now, people will complain that the warehoused supplies are old or outdated. LOL

[Wes21]

52 minutes ago, Bostonheelfish said:

The virus hasn't even come close to peaking in NYC yet, other states won't need assistance until much later, so governors are not asking yet because the need isn't there, and if there aren't enough tests, it's harder to know exactly how many people are infected currently.  The federal gov't sent 4,000 ventilators to NY state when they need 30,000.  The issue isn't whether the fed has done anything, it's whether the fed has done any where close to what is needed to help save the lives of 3.3 million people (this is 1% of the U.S. population).

So in your estimation, what part does the hospital, the city of New York and the state of New York play in the need for ventilators?

[Bostonheelfish]

1 hour ago, stirs said:

The Fed is a genie, you rub their belly and poof. 500k ventilators appear.  You know, cause everyone knew for the last 50 years that they should have warehouses full of these.

This is not anything that any gov has planned for.  Since budgets mean nothing anymore, I guess they can buy warehouses and put 400 million rolls of toilet paper in them for the next unseen virus, in case it affects the GI tract.

And so on and so on.

I am not a Trump fan, nor did I vote for him, but the finger pointing, with no thought beyond Twitter "knowledge" is pretty awesome to watch.

No one is saying that the Fed needs to perform magic; but considering they bungled the mitigation effort, the fact that an emergency wasn't declared for the funding of ventilators weeks ago is disgusting.

[Davidson Deac II]

I can't imagine how hard it will be to switch from making autoparts to medical equipment. I think this will be far more difficult than we realize, but hopefully the process goes quickly.

[stirs]

23 minutes ago, Bostonheelfish said:

No one is saying that the Fed needs to perform magic; but considering they bungled the mitigation effort, the fact that an emergency wasn't declared for the funding of ventilators weeks ago is disgusting.

What mitigation efforts are the Feds in charge of vs state and local?

[Wes21]

7 minutes ago, Davidson Deac II said:

I can't imagine how hard it will be to switch from making autoparts to medical equipment. I think this will be far more difficult than we realize, but hopefully the process goes quickly.

From what I read Elon Musk set up a shop to build some medical equipment and has already started sending it out.  So I'd imagine its not that difficult.  the key is getting in touch with the right machinery people and having the space available to set up shop.

[top dawg]

4 hours ago, cookinbrak said:

Cases aren't skyrocketing, they were already here. Just like Italy's death toll doubling daily, people aren't dying exponentially, they were just finding the bodies. 

 

They aren't counting or testing those bodies from what I've read.

Our cases are skyrocketing. You can deny or rationalize all you like. We're handling things the stupid way, and lives, including health professionals', are being needlessly lost because of it. And if some idiots in high places have their way, it will be much much worse than it had to be!

[Wes21]

30 minutes ago, Bostonheelfish said:

No one is saying that the Fed needs to perform magic; but considering they bungled the mitigation effort, the fact that an emergency wasn't declared for the funding of ventilators weeks ago is disgusting.

And to repeat:

So in your estimation, what part does the hospital, the city of New York and the state of New York play in the need for ventilators?

[Bostonheelfish]

1 hour ago, Wes21 said:

So in your estimation, what part does the hospital, the city of New York and the state of New York play in the need for ventilators?

They should only be responsible for what is reasonably foreseeable and it should be relative to their capabilities.  No healthcare system in the world is prepared for this pandemic, but the ones who had more notice before it got to their shores have a duty to help prevent the spread and treat those infected to the extent possible. New York state cannot direct other states to produce medical equipment, they can only direct those factories within their jurisdiction.  The federal government was in the best position to coordinate the effort to increase ventilator production.  The hospitals, and our healthcare system is not designed to combat a pandemic (again, no country's is).  This is a known fact, the assumption being, if there is such an emergency, the federal government would be there assist. The federal gov't didn't even place a hold on price gouging for medical supplies.  States were competing with each other for medical supplies, and the medical supply companies were price gouging (oh yeah, the Federal gov't was also competing against the states for these supplies).  That is egregious. 

Everyone has a duty to mitigate this pandemic.  What percentage do states, hospitals and the federal gov't have with regard to meeting that duty?  I have no idea.  That's too speculative, but I can say the federal gov't is best situated to protect the people in this country, and thus should bear most of the responsibility.

[Wes21]

1 minute ago, Bostonheelfish said:

They should only be responsible for what is reasonably foreseeable and it should be relative to their capabilities.  No healthcare system in the world is prepared for this pandemic, but the ones who had more notice before it got to their shores have a duty to help prevent the spread and treat those infected to the extent possible. New York state cannot direct other states to produce medical equipment, they can only direct those factories within their jurisdiction.  The federal government was in the best position to coordinate the effort to increase ventilator production.  The hospitals, and our healthcare system is not designed to combat a pandemic (again, no country's is).  This is a known fact, the assumption being, if there is such an emergency, the federal government would be there assist. The federal gov't didn't even place a hold on price gouging for medical supplies.  States were competing with each other for medical supplies, and the medical supply companies were price gouging (oh yeah, the Federal gov't was also competing against the states for these supplies).  That is egregious. 

Everyone has a duty to mitigate this pandemic.  What percentage do states, hospitals and the federal gov't have with regard to meeting that duty?  I have no idea.  That's too speculative, but I can say the federal gov't is best situated to protect the people in this country, and thus should bear most of the responsibility.

That's alot of words without an answer.  So let's take the 30,000 number.  How many ventilators do you think they actually need?  More than 30,000 and that's just the remainder?  Less than 30,000?  Exactly 30,000?