We Have Passed France And South Korea As We Rocket Towards #1

There is no "China Flu," and comparing a national civil war to a global pandemic is idiotic.

You also shift, dishonestly, back and forth between global and national statistics to make your stupid points.

Being optimistic about "only" 1,500 deaths is like a guy falling off a roof and halfway down, he smiles and says, "So far, so good!"

A state Governor decides how many ventilators (or X-ray machines, or anything else)a hospital should be bought?  I'm not an apologist for him or any other.  Just familiar with how some decisions are viewed in healthcare, procurement of equipment, etc.

Having worked my life in hospitals, I can vouch for how stingy each and every one is.  They all have budgets, of course, determined by their income source (state, fed, insurance, private pay, donors).   They have their favorites, bowing down to influential people in certain specialties, like cancer and heart disease, that bring in a lot of donor money.  The CEOs of course get big bucks.  Need another nurse in dialysis because your patient load is increasing?  That goes at the bottom of the pile.  "Find ways to work smarter."  Not a money maker.

To be honest I am shocked, shocked (and glad, BTW) seeing these hundreds of ventilators being trucked in.  Because I know how long it took to procure anything like that, even just one or two.  I didn't know they could even be manufactured that quickly.  How long through endless proposal writing, statistical justifications, budget meetings, pricing, following the "rules" in ordering to avoid the appearance of favoring certain companies.  Then the company would be back ordered.  Then once the thing reaches the doorstep you can't even think of using it until you (me, in my circumstance) have written the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) 15 pages of which had to be reviewed and passed on by Infection Control and other departments who had no actual knowledge of the procedure.

Well, that's a rant and I'm glad they can bypass some of these hurdles and get the people treated.  I'm just surprised at the blame/accountability being placed on politicians who didn't know any more than I did about a never heard of virus that would create such a catastrophe throughout the world.   That's all.  No need to reply, Mark and Kevin.  I already know what you will say.  

The Stooges are the ones who made the estimates of the biggest disaster in American history. 

I merely mentioned that with less than 1,500 deaths we are a long way from the 2 million to match the Spanish Flu. 

If we can have the Spanish Flu, we can gave the China Flu. 

Just because the Chinese don't like it, that's their problem. 

Thats right - you shit pants about a non-airborne disease that you and the entire right wing community demanded we treat as such and were really, really upset that we weren't.    

Now that we actually have a an airborne illness that is massively infectious  to the point of shuttering our economy for the first time in history you shrug it off and compare it to the flu.  

...And blame state leaders for federal responsibilities.

Trump has the authority to streamline the supply chain of ventilators to the areas that need it most instead of allowing a bidding war to go on between all of the states and hospitals.     But that would require him to be responsible for something - and take away valuable twitter time used to shit talk political opponents.

That, PJ Stroh,  makes sense to me.  The authority to streamline the supply chain.  Thanks. 

But knowing it was coming long enough to have had everything in place to avoid this fallout?  I dunno. 

How did FDR contract polio?  Should he have known about it and put himself and the country in isolation before it broke out?  Remember polio?  You might be too young.

Candy, Cuomo didn't "decide" how many ventilators NY would need. He asked his experts, and he was told. He listens to the experts who advise him and respects science and hard data, unlike the Orange Turd.

I remember polio. It wasn't contagious enough or prevalent enough to warrant social isolation, but those afflicted were in fact isolated. It wasn't a pandemic, thankfully.

What I find utterly sickening is that Trump just barfed up a cavalier dismissal of NY's critical need for ventilators, saying that he had a "feeling" that they didn't need nearly as many as Cuomo said. He didn't elaborate on what his feeling was based on--of course, for him, it's all about his reelection, and who cares if people die?

I cannot fathom how anyone continues to support this horrible man. The mayor of New York City should ban him from ever setting foot there again.

I am too young to remember polio, Candy.      

I'm not sure I'd compare responses a century apart.  We have alot of tools available today that weren't available in FDR's time:    The internet allows some people to work from home.    Unemployment insurance allows people to still get income while avoding work.    And modern scientists can diagnose diseases more quickly today and figure out how they spread, how to treat them, and if we're lucky how to cure them.

I believe the  medical community was generally confused about how polio spread until the 1950's.

People of Chinese descent in the US are being attacked by racist idiots because of Trump's false narrative.

If you want to parrot his racist lies, I can't stop you. But you should know that those lies hurt people.

Parroting Trump at every turn is reprehensible and dishonorable. Do you have any honor?

The Spanish Flu lasted just shy of three years. Let's see where our numbers are in three years assuming we are both still around to discuss it. It is Interesting you think medical care in the US hasn't advanced in 100 years. 

Your claim about Cuomo not listening to a recommendation to buy ventilators is false. If you would have bothered to check your facts, you would have known that. 

Contrary to the president’s claim, a task force in 2015 did not make a recommendation about purchasing more ventilators. The report — “Ventilator Allocation Guidelines” — provided guidelines for New York hospitals on how they should decide which patients get ventilators in the event of a severe influenza pandemic. Factcheck.org

The only person ignoring the need for ventilators is Trump. Just last night he said based upon his "feeling" New York and other states don't need more ventilators. 

The report also said that NY would not have enough ventilators in the event of a pandemic. 

NYS & NYC own a number of hospitals but they chose not to take up the recommendation.