I don’t think GM is the leader on this. I heard of a smaller parts maker who redesigned all night and is already producing. Warren or something like that. Then GM and Ford said “We can do that too.”
That’s the one I use too. We’re a little over halfway through the GMT day and so far all the new deaths are in California (mostly) and New York. I wonder why?
Obama did prepare- his responses to Ebola were very well done.
Perfect? No. But he had a team for whom this was a number one priority, and gave them access to the President via the NSC.
And as we saw, once Trump became interested, all the barriers to getting testing up and running were swiftly overcome. All that needed to be done was have the executive interested in driving forward on this.
Imagine had Trump not kicked the pandemic guy off the NSC, and he had heard the intelligence Trump heard that China was covering up how serious the outbreak was? Think he might have said ■■■■■■ that mean they’re going to hit here. Let’s get ramped up and ready!”
Now- not having strategic capability built up in this country for personal protective equipment and medical supplies ready for scale up? Yes- Obama shares accountability for that along with Presidents before him.
But this is a case where for 30 years now, national interests have been placed on the back burner in favor of corporate interests. Presidents both Democratic and Republican are accountable for allowing that to happen.
I will caveat, however, that with a FASTER and BETTER internal response to the cases already in this country after the “travel ban” fell? The issues with PPE and supplies wouldn’t be anywhere near as critical as they are now.
Had we acted in early February with testing/isolation/contact testing, we’d have far fewer cases…both confirmed and “real”… than we have right now.
Because in order to be “prepared”, we need to know what to prepare. For example, we spend resources on increasing ventilator capacity, but the next epidemic is not respiratory.
We could definitely do better.
From looking at this in hindsight, strategic preparedness could have been better. Moving manufacturing of PPE home for example. Perhaps we could look at that as a national defense item.
The healthcare field is only going to become more necessary. I would be in favor of incentives for going into these fields. No interest student loans, then you work for the State for a couple of years and your loan is forgiven. Things like that. And not just Doctors. Respiratory therapists, nurses, orderlies, anybody in the field.
While a lot of these students might not catch the virus, or even experience any symptoms if they do … I worry about all the other people they will spread the virus to. Many of which might not be so lucky.
Are you sure he wasn’t “interested”? I say he was more concerned about what he perceived as the greater threat. And he hasn’t been proven wrong yet. Do I need to report my human nature post?
Stop dude. We’ve been over this.
That is an economic result. Driven by business decisions. The government does not make PPE nor does it have the logistics to handle it. You would have had warehouses full of unusable materials rats had been in. And a lot of that stuff has a shelf life.
Agreed, all countries will economically collapse if they remain in lock down indefinitely. The silver lining here is unlike previous World War’s the human toll to defeat this virus will ultimately take a profound lower # of people. The economy after WW1 had the Roaring 20’s. After WW11, the Baby Boomer’s era between 1946-1964 took hold leaving the Great Depression in the dust. This pandemic may prove what does not kill us makes us stronger. Now at least America and the World will be better equipped to handle future pandemics and epidemics.
As to “Dance”, take a look at how this NY physician Dr. Zelenko out of Orange County is already doing it. He only meets patients out of a hospital setting. Even without tests, he often partners them up with prescribing this anti-malaria drug. Much like a square dance, patients are now being arranged facing this silent virus in the middle of all this mess. He has tweeted the POTUS alerting him of early successes.
Sounds like other doctors can swing their partner (these drugs) round and round…
