gcomeau wrote:Ummm, ORDER SUPPLIES in advance in anticipation of it not being contained in China?
How about that as a freaking minimum?
Start contracting with existing manufacturing facilities to retool to start making critical equipment?
Or, you know, do anything that was in the pandemic response playbook they inherited from the last administration and then ignored?Imaginos wrote:There was a stockpile. 0bama used them up, and did nothing to replace them.
Ummm, no.
The Trump administration shipped 17 tons of critical medical supplies to China in early February then THEY did nothing to replace them.
https://www.state.gov/the-united-states ... ronavirus/
And btw, the shipping the supplies to China part? That wasn't a stupid thing to do. It was in fact one of the only intelligent things they did, trying to fight it and slow it down at the source before it broke out is a very effective time saving strategy.
But then they did NOTHING with the time. Trump just kept saying it wasn't a problem. They didn't develop and produce tests. They didn't replenish stockpiles. Even after cases started showing up in the US Trump was all over tv saying it was nothing and the cases would go to 0 in no time like magic and everyone should just conduct business as usual. They they had it completely contained and under control. His only concern was thinking if the numbers in the US were *reported* as going up it would make HIM look bad for ffs. Because his ego is always and forever his primary overriding concern.
Which is why the US is now on the path to becoming the global epicenter of the outbreak.
As I was saying, they spent the months of advance warning they had doing *nothing* to prepare...
https://apnews.com/090600c299a8cf07f5b44d92534856bc
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the first alarms sounded in early January that an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China might ignite a global pandemic, the Trump administration squandered nearly two months that could have been used to bolster the federal stockpile of critically needed medical supplies and equipment.
A review of federal purchasing contracts by The Associated Press shows federal agencies waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers.
By that time, hospitals in several states were treating thousands of infected patients without adequate equipment and were pleading for shipments from the Strategic National Stockpile. That federal cache of supplies was created more than 20 years ago to help bridge gaps in the medical and pharmaceutical supply chains during a national emergency.