My apologies. No wonder my post made no sense to you. I guess it boils down to economics. The gov can buy and warehouse 20,000 ventilators and millions of PPE. If they arent used in x number of years they will be junk. How would they handle that? Throw everything away every couple of years? It is a huge undertaking and the more years that go by the less interest it garners. I bet something is done in the years ahead. For awhile anyway.
Corona Virus
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Yes but the whole program was dropped. I am sure there still would have been problems even if we had followed through. But the response could have been much faster.
Rather than looking to assign blame, I think we need to be looking to the next potential pandemic and what can be done so that we don't have to shut down like this again.
I'm also looking for silver linings but I'm having a tough time with that.
I am enjoying the particularly crisp clean air and skies that seem bluer though.
- A global pandemic quick response and assessment team. I suppose that's the WHO though I don't know.
- Domestic stockpiling of response supplies like PPE
- Rebuild domestic production of critical supplies like test kits. Provide government incentives if needed.
- Laws to prevent short term hoarding. We need to counter greed for the greater good somehow.
- A federal response team that is responsible for instituting measures for controlling related disease spreads, including shutdowns. It doesn't seem to me that this effort should be led by the WH. This team should include CDC types but also economists, law enforcement, state leadership, etc. This team should also assure readiness by instituting the measures above.
- Expansion of these types of measures to other threats to increase our society's resilience. It seems way too fragile to me.
I'm also looking for silver linings but I'm having a tough time with that.
I am enjoying the particularly crisp clean air and skies that seem bluer though.
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We need to move our supply chains back to the US for one. We learned a lesson there. With the global nature of things a highly infectious disease can spread world wide in a matter of days. Transparency from all nations and strong surveillance is a must. It is spooky that you could go to a supermarket and be picking out celery right beside someone who was in China the day before. We are more vulnerable than we realize.
Yes, everyone you pass by could be the Grim Reaper whether they have been to China or not. The person you were next to buying celery may not have been to China, but might have been standing next to someone who had while he was getting the milk.
Covid 19 is spooky because it has so many asymptomatic carriers. The person next to you that is infected could be your neighbor who has never left the state. The next morphing pandemic virus may be a variant of MERS and have nothing to do with China. Sure hope not.
Medic21
Minister of Fire
Responding to a global pandemic in the risk management world is a high risk, low frequency situation. Those are almost impossible to plan for. Yes we can assure PPE is available to an extent. N95 masks and a lot of other respirators have a shelf life. Everyone wants to blast the government for not having masks but, most of what they had was expired to begin with.
There is no way to prepare for testing when you have no idea when It’s a novel virus as this case. Had it been a known virus we would have been ok. Trump already did what was most important by removing restrictions on private companies to make tests. We have actually done an amazing job since that happened in producing tests. We have serum lactate testing that’s been proven to be accurate for 10 years waiting to this day on FDA approval. It could be a game changer for transport decisions in the field by paramedics in sepsis,trauma, and a whole host of other medical problems. Red tape is holding it back.
Over all we have responded well to this as actual facts came out. I will forever say that shutting down everything without a period of giving people the correct information, not the media hysteria that they got, and allowing them to take correct steps first was dead wrong at every level of government. To this day there is still more misinformation and fear than actual facts. For every expert with an opinion there is an equally credentialed expert that has an opposite opinion and instead of presenting everything on the merits they warranted we went with and continue to go with one side.
The chance of another global pandemic on this scale in our lifetimes is almost zero based on history.
I truly believe from what I have seen this will be looked back on when all information is out as overreacting on a scale that has never been seen in history. That will be worldwide. All we have done is slow down what nature is going to accomplish in the end. And to what cost overall?
There is no way to prepare for testing when you have no idea when It’s a novel virus as this case. Had it been a known virus we would have been ok. Trump already did what was most important by removing restrictions on private companies to make tests. We have actually done an amazing job since that happened in producing tests. We have serum lactate testing that’s been proven to be accurate for 10 years waiting to this day on FDA approval. It could be a game changer for transport decisions in the field by paramedics in sepsis,trauma, and a whole host of other medical problems. Red tape is holding it back.
Over all we have responded well to this as actual facts came out. I will forever say that shutting down everything without a period of giving people the correct information, not the media hysteria that they got, and allowing them to take correct steps first was dead wrong at every level of government. To this day there is still more misinformation and fear than actual facts. For every expert with an opinion there is an equally credentialed expert that has an opposite opinion and instead of presenting everything on the merits they warranted we went with and continue to go with one side.
The chance of another global pandemic on this scale in our lifetimes is almost zero based on history.
I truly believe from what I have seen this will be looked back on when all information is out as overreacting on a scale that has never been seen in history. That will be worldwide. All we have done is slow down what nature is going to accomplish in the end. And to what cost overall?
Medic21
Minister of Fire
If you want to ignore what I said about giving people information on what they needed to do first, yes. That’s the same bullshit fear tactics people want to throw around. You cannot back up you statement with one bit of actual evidence to make it true. That makes you part of the problem with how this was dealt with.
I agree there is absolutely no way we could be completely prepared for a pandemic. Because clearly we would not know far enough in advance exactly what would be needed. But putting scientists and medical professionals in the leadership instead of the VP and Jared kushner might have been a good idea. Keeping the pandemic task force well funded and manned probably would have helped. Not down playing it for so long would have been a good idea.
Medic21
Minister of Fire
And as the situation unfolded they really did use the know facts, at the time of making the decision, they had. You can’t look back and say this decision should have been made two months ago on any information that came to light after that date. We are not fortune tellers and the decisions made could have ruined the country in the long run. Frankly speaking, is destroying the economy over a few thousand lives worth it? Decision that had to be made had to be made without emotions.
Yes, the people put in place were a joke. Politics were involved where it shouldnt have been.
You didn't have to be a fortune teller to look at what was going on in other countries.
Medic21
Minister of Fire
And we acted earlier based on what we knew than a lot of other countries. We have faired better than most also. We have a low death rate compared to a lot of them. The stay at home orders are the responsibility of the state. Indiana issued theirs with 120 statewide cases. That’s pretty proactive. New York waited way too long.
The national emergency was declared with less than 400 cases in the country. 400 out of 300 million people. That opened the door for money To the states to prepare. I don’t know what you think could have been done sooner.
Less than 400 confirmed cases when there was very little testing available here. And wait now you are saying our response is good? In the other thread you were saying it is rediculous.
Medic21
Minister of Fire
I’m saying our response wasn’t delayed as a lot have implied.
No I do not think we have had the overall correct response to this. Don’t worry, I’m enough of a man that if I’m proven wrong in the end I’ll admit it.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Simple, FIFO. The government buys respirators with a 3-year expiration, and resells them 6-12 months later, with 24-30 months left on the expiration date. Keep a continuosly-rolling stock, just as simple as anyone who deals with any surge-demand product.
Amen, brother. But I’d caution against your suggestion of reliance on any international organization, like the WHO, with interests that are not completely aligned with our own. International cooperation is absolutely necessary, but we should be putting the bulk of our dollars into bolstering the US capabilities, in cooperation with any international effort.
Here as well, I think we need both. Cheap Chineese labor has allowed us all to live a lifestyle that we could never achieve otherwise, so it‘s hypocritical to malign it. But I agree that some critical fraction of nearly all products must be manufactured in the USA. Setting and determining how to coerce or enforce those thresholds should be a major focus of Congress to come.
Yeah, seriously. But I only personally know two people who have passed from this virus so far. They were 46 and 34, and both in apparently good health.
Medic21
Minister of Fire
Not really. Where government run healthcare exists, people were denied treatment for covid based on age. That's a pretty big exact same thing.
Medic21
Minister of Fire
I think what you meant to say was,“ patients were triaged based on condition and likely outcome”. Because, that is what happened in places like Italy when they were overwhelmed. In this kind of situation it’s a black and white numbers and odds decision.
Yes a really big stretch. He is talking about cutting down on waste through unnecessary procedures and drugs that won't help. That is a good thing.
That had absolutely nothing to do with private vs public healthcare. It had to do with to much patient load. The same would have happened here in similar circumstances
Medic21
Minister of Fire
There does come a time a doctor needs to sit down and talk about options with family. We had to do with my grandma a couple years ago. That’s a huge difference between that and claiming that somebody’s making a decision for them.
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