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Martha MacCallum calls out CMS head for dodging question on coronavirus prep: 'That is not a direct answer'
Fox News ^ | March 12, 2020 | Yael Halon

Posted on 03/13/2020 12:37:55 AM PDT by familyop

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1 posted on 03/13/2020 12:37:55 AM PDT by familyop
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To: familyop

Obama had 8 years to stock ventilators and masks after H1N1... it seems this should have been done then if it truly is the President’s responsibility.


2 posted on 03/13/2020 12:41:33 AM PDT by willyd (I for one welcome our NSA overlords)
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To: willyd

That’s a very good point. Because of the medical costs during the years of the Obama Administration, many people lost their homes and life savings from the flu and complications like pneumonia and sepsis.


3 posted on 03/13/2020 12:46:08 AM PDT by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
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To: familyop

I saw the interview and the CMS female never came close to answering Martha’s question.

Almost like, ask her what day comes after Monday and she’d talk about the benefit of wearing gloves in winter.

Evasive, deep stater,in my opinion.


4 posted on 03/13/2020 12:48:14 AM PDT by llevrok (Vote while it is still legal)
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: familyop

I saw the interview and wasn’t impressed with her answers to that question. She should have said it’s impossible to answer that question because we don’t know how fast the cases will increase here and that we’re as well prepared as we can be.

Of course, if she had said that, the media would be blaring “Trump administration official says we are not prepared.”


6 posted on 03/13/2020 1:06:57 AM PDT by FreedomForce
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To: familyop

I wonder how fast we could ramp production of ventilators?

What’s the production rate in the US now?
What could we ramp it too?
How fast can they be produced?
What’s the current backlog of orders?
Can we drive the cost down with volume?
Are there cheaper alternatives, ventilators without as many options, that could be produced?

Just googling it looks like prices range from $500 TO $6000.
Seems like we should buy another 100,000 at $500 = $50 million. Depending on how fast they can be delivered.

We just passed an $8.3 billion bill.


7 posted on 03/13/2020 1:23:43 AM PDT by DannyTN
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To: familyop

I wonder how fast we could ramp production of ventilators?

What’s the production rate in the US now?
What could we ramp it too?
How fast can they be produced?
What’s the current backlog of orders?
Can we drive the cost down with volume?
Are there cheaper alternatives, ventilators without as many options, that could be produced?

Just googling it looks like prices range from $500 TO $6000.
Seems like we should buy another 100,000 at $500 = $50 million. Depending on how fast they can be delivered.

We just passed an $8.3 billion bill.


8 posted on 03/13/2020 1:23:43 AM PDT by DannyTN
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To: willyd

This is NOT the President’s responsibility.


9 posted on 03/13/2020 1:30:44 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: familyop

It is disappointing that some FR posters are not able to see that the question was a gottcha, designed to make the interviewee look wrong anyway the question was answered. Those questions always make the person being questioned look awkward because they must be polite and they are handicapped by knowing that their response will be quoted in misleading partial words.

I’m sure that there is not enough time to formulate & rehearse answers in advance to gottcha questions at a time when there is real time change & evolution in the course of the viral outbreak resulting in fine tuning of the Country’s response.

When people who are trying to be truthful are pushed beyond what they can honestly say into making statements about a future they can have guesses about but where no one knows with certainty, it is a perversion of journalism.

It is a purposeful distortion of reality that weaponizes people’s desire to know what can’t be known into a scapegoating of the interviewee by redirecting the audience frustration and anxiety toward the interviewee. The honest interviewer would acknowledge that no one knows but experts have the most informed opinion and that is the best anyone can do.


10 posted on 03/13/2020 1:34:13 AM PDT by JayGalt (You can't teach a donkey how to tap dance. Nemo me impune lacessit!)
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To: JayGalt

An excellent response, consise,intelligent and well reasoned.

Using kinder words than I would have used you truthfully said the media is made up mostly of self serving scumbags.


11 posted on 03/13/2020 1:42:32 AM PDT by billyboy15
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To: DannyTN

“Seems like we should buy another 100,000 at $500 = $50 million.”

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

“Around 20% of cases require hospitalization, 5% of cases require the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and around 2.5% require very intensive help, with items such as ventilators or ECMO (extra-corporeal oxygenation).
The problem is that items such as ventilators and ECMO can’t be produced or bought easily. A few years ago, the US had a total of 250 ECMO machines, for example.
So if you suddenly have 100,000 people infected, many of them will want to go get tested. Around 20,000 will require hospitalization, 5,000 will need the ICU, and 1,000 will need machines that we don’t have enough of today. And that’s just with 100,000 cases.”


12 posted on 03/13/2020 2:02:29 AM PDT by LouieFisk
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To: LouieFisk

Also the requirement of a ventilator brings with it the requirement of the personnel capable of its administration - a critical care nurse.


13 posted on 03/13/2020 2:17:27 AM PDT by jacknhoo (Luke 12:51; Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
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To: llevrok

“I saw the interview and the CMS female never came close to answering Martha’s question.”

She sure did filibuster so she could avoid the question. Martha was too polite.


14 posted on 03/13/2020 2:19:31 AM PDT by be-baw
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To: jacknhoo

“Also the requirement of a ventilator brings with it the requirement of the personnel capable of its administration - a critical care nurse.”

Having enough ICU personnel in general is another huge can of worms to deal with if things really go south.


15 posted on 03/13/2020 2:23:29 AM PDT by LouieFisk
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To: be-baw

“She sure did filibuster so she could avoid the question. Martha was too polite.”

Her non-answer filibuster at the end would have had me reaching through the camera for her neck!


16 posted on 03/13/2020 2:25:45 AM PDT by LouieFisk
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To: familyop

“Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma”

She was very robotic and did not answer Martha Maccallum’s questions. Best thing I can say is that Miss Verma was pro-Trump.


17 posted on 03/13/2020 2:41:17 AM PDT by dennisw
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To: LouieFisk

On the ECMO, maybe the bottleneck is not the machine.

The ECMO machine is similar to the heart-lung by-pass machine.

How many worker bees in the medical industry are qualified to prepare, attach, monitor, and detach this sort of equipment? How many man-hours involved?

Some of the figures and logic seem out of thin air, or not following one another. For example, “if you suddenly have 100,000 people infected, many of them will want to go get tested.” How do we know they are infected with COVID if they are not tested? How do we know 20% of COVID infectees require hospitalization? That 5% require ICU? Some medical official in Ohio, I don;t know her name, claims 100,000 people in Ohio are presently infected. She gets that on some sort of guessing on community spread characteristics and the way the herd has been behaving. Not speaking to the truth of her figure, it’s 1% of the population of the state, just pointing out there is much we don’t know, and are making policy based on speculation.


18 posted on 03/13/2020 2:55:59 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: Cboldt

“if you suddenly have 100,000 people infected, many of them will want to go get tested.” How do we know they are infected with COVID if they are not tested?”
—Yeah that does kinda fall back in on itself - the best I can think of is 100,000 feeling ill who want to be tested.

“How do we know 20% of COVID infectees require hospitalization? That 5% require ICU?”

That has been the experience so far, those are the averages.

“Some medical official in Ohio, I don;t know her name, claims 100,000 people in Ohio are presently infected. She gets that on some sort of guessing on community spread characteristics and the way the herd has been behaving. Not speaking to the truth of her figure, it’s 1% of the population of the state, just pointing out there is much we don’t know, and are making policy based on speculation.”

Not speaking to those numbers, but most of our lives are shaped by speculation. How many eggs to get for next week, how much car/house repair might cost. I used to do inventory and write up purchase orders based on speculation of how much of this & that would be needed in x amount of time.
It’s not perfect, but it’s really the only tool we have when it comes to trying to figure out future needs.


19 posted on 03/13/2020 3:05:58 AM PDT by LouieFisk
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To: LouieFisk
-- That has been the experience so far, those are the averages. --

There is no way to know 20% of COVID infectees require hospitalization until we know the number of infectees. The figure you are using is a fraction of people with serious enough symptoms to go to the doctor - and no doubt some of those people go to the doctor on minor symptoms.

-- but most of our lives are shaped by speculation. How many eggs to get for next week --

Or when to buy toilet paper. All those decisions are based on experience. We have a fair handle on repeat/predicablt events. What is the household rate of egg consumption? Milk? How much gasoline do you consume in a month? How far is your commute and how many days a year do you go to work? Sure, there is some uncertaintly there, but not much.

How much uncertainty is there in "20% of people who become infected with COVID will require hospitalization"?

20 posted on 03/13/2020 3:13:31 AM PDT by Cboldt
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