The Politics of a Health Crisis

[henry quirk]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Here in the US, mid-April son.

They are wagerin' it will be [b]81,000 dead[/], let's see how it goes

https://covid19.healthdata.org/

Mebbe (but probably not): we'll see.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Same old story...

Thirteen years ago, a group of U.S. public health officials came up with a plan to address what they regarded as one of the medical system’s crucial vulnerabilities: a shortage of ventilators.
The breathing-assistance machines tended to be bulky, expensive and limited in number. The plan was to build a large fleet of inexpensive portable devices to deploy in a flu pandemic or another crisis.
Money was budgeted. A federal contract was signed. Work got underway.
And then things suddenly veered off course. A multibillion-dollar maker of medical devices bought the small California company that had been hired to design the new machines. The project ultimately produced zero ventilators.

They had finished the design and sent three samples to Washington for evaluation. They performed and were a third of the price of the machines sold by the giant that bought the company for $100 million then asked the government for $1.5 million more, got it and promptly assigned everyone working on it to different projects. Later the giant was bought by Medtronic who says, What ventilators?

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

I doubt he even has that ability

What, mentally?


Practically, who can say no that can't be overruled?

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Here in the US, mid-April son.

They are wagerin' it will be 81,000 dead, let's see how it goes

https://covid19.healthdata.org/

Good on Bill Gates btw.

[Undertoad]

I doubt he even has that ability

Practically, who can say no that can't be overruled?

Ability, not authority --

Partly because, in general, how things get done in the world is not CEOs micromanaging the process. The scale is too large for that. It won't work.

This is not an exact analogy, but if I'm a CEO and I walk down to shipping and I say, "Give me the bills of lading and list of trucks and I'll tell them where to go," I will actually fuck up the logistics department for weeks; and some of those trucks won't arrive, or won't be handled correctly for a while. Because I don't have 20 years of experience in shipping. Like, I just sent the refrigerator trucks north and the shipments sent south will spoil.

[Happy Monkey]

He doesn't have to micromanage the truck routing, he can just tell the managers "F New York".

[Undertoad]

Allllrighty. Well I don't mean to get in the way of your pet theory, knock yourself out.

[Happy Monkey]

I didn't put forth the theory, I was just trying to figure out what you thought could stop him.

[Undertoad]

Yeah, but I answered, and now we are in some sort of quibbling phase where my answer isn't it. Just bring us a link that proves it happened. That will really show I'm wrong.

[tw]

As if Puerto Rico got the necessary supplies it needed. It only took a good part of a year to provide what was needed the first week. Because Trump is such a good manager.

[Undertoad]

USNS Comfort is now in NY harbor -- just when needed -- either this proves he is an effective leader or this proves he hates Puerto Rico.

Wait until he finds out how many Puerto Ricans are in NYC

Actually it proves nothing at all as he had nothing to do with it

[tw]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Wait until he finds out how many Puerto Ricans are in NYC

More Puerto Ricans are expatriates than there are Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico.

[BigV]

We all face problems at this time, today I killed two turds with one stone.

[sexobon]

People can blow their noses in that when they get shitfaced too!

[Flint]

So I had heard something but wasn't sure it was a rumor or what, but it's true-- back in early February, the State Department sent 17.8 tons of medical supplies to China, including masks and respirators. This is back when we only had a dozen cases in the US, and the whole thing was a democratic hoax that the media was hyping to hurt Trump's re-election.

Truth is stranger than fiction.