Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

New York City stockpiled ventilators for a pandemic, only to later auction them off: report
Fox News ^ | 4/7/20 | Tyler Olsen

Posted on 04/07/2020 11:59:29 AM PDT by conservative98

In 2006, then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration began purchasing ventilators to allow the city to be prepared for a pandemic like the current coronavirus crisis -- only for the city to later auction them off, according to a report.

ProPublica reported Monday that the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issued a report in 2006 on the city's preparedness for pandemic influenza -- similar to the 1918 Spanish Flu or the 2019 novel coronavirus -- that projected the city would need thousands of extra ventilators in order to properly treat all of its residents who got sick. The plan was then put into action, with the city initially buying 500 ventilators before it ran out of money to buy more and to maintain the ones it had already stockpiled, according to ProPublica.

Those ventilators were then auctioned off some time before 2016 because the city could not afford to maintain them in working order, partially because the model of ventilator the city had purchased was no longer in production after 2009, the report said.

"We tried to fill in the gap as best we could," Dr. Issac Weisfuse, the former deputy commissioner of the city's health department, told ProPublica.

"This was beyond our control but had a direct impact on cost and viability of maintaining a stockpile," Michael Lanza, the current assistant press secretary for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said according to ProPublica.

The outlet also reported that New York City set out to purchase over one million N95 face masks -- the type suggested for use to protect against the coronavirus -- in order to distribute them to health professionals. It purchased less than one-quarter of that and the masks all eventually expired.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: New York
KEYWORDS: andrewcuomo; auction; bloomberg; coronavirus; cuomo; deblasio; masks; newyork; ventilators
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-72 next last
To: I want the USA back

Mike will get it done. Oh, wait.....


21 posted on 04/07/2020 12:53:59 PM PDT by conservative98
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: conservative98

Mike got it done. Reichsführer Wilhelm undid it.


22 posted on 04/07/2020 12:55:03 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: God luvs America

The fact that I never heard that story before is yet more proof that the majority of the Republican party sides with Democraps. If REAL Republican existed, that story would be dumped on every college campus in the country, mailed to every person who is grappling with massive student debt. The fact that isn’t happening is exactly why Democraps for the past 3.5 years have been able to hold fake investigations, attempted coups and a fake impeachments and why not ONE of them has been investigated


23 posted on 04/07/2020 12:58:21 PM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (As long as Hillary Clinton remains free equal justice under the law will never exist in the USA)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: conservative98

I’m sure I do not want to meet the sorts of people
who would show up at a ventilator auction.


24 posted on 04/07/2020 12:58:47 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: conservative98

Fake News. Sound Bite mentality. Of course they did the right thing by releasing unneeded supplies instead of hoarding them. Of course they used the market to allocate them.

Would you rather the Ventilator Czar does it?

As long as the Feds knew about it in case they were other more grievous needs not being represented in the auction, I see no harm in auctions. Auctions are efficient allocators in scarcity.

Ask a real economist. We used to believe that here.


25 posted on 04/07/2020 12:59:24 PM PDT by Strident (< null >)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

Mike didn’t get it done. He commissioned a report and bought only 500 intitally before he ran out of money.


26 posted on 04/07/2020 12:59:26 PM PDT by conservative98
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: SES1066

You’ve hit on the crux of the matter with your comment.

Woo-Hoo Flu is a 100-year event.

It simply makes no economic sense to remain in a constant state of readiness for 100-year events.


27 posted on 04/07/2020 12:59:56 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: CharlesWayneCT

implement a policy where when a hospital buys masks, 20% are sent to the state......That only allows a LOT of other and more thieves to sell, barter or hijack the stored product.


28 posted on 04/07/2020 1:01:47 PM PDT by Safetgiver (Islam makes barbarism look genteel.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: conservative98
"This was beyond our control but had a direct impact on cost and viability of maintaining a stockpile," Michael Lanza, the current assistant press secretary for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said according to ProPublica.

Typical liberal, they want someone else to pay for their stuff, like U.S. taxpayers, meanwhile they are free to spend THAT money on goofy worthless stuff they deem important, like diversity projects and taking care of illegals.

29 posted on 04/07/2020 1:02:45 PM PDT by 1Old Pro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog
I’m sure I do not want to meet the sorts of people who would show up at a ventilator auction.

I would imagine small rural hospitals on a tight budget would bid.

30 posted on 04/07/2020 1:03:15 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 ("Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." -- Voltaire)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: conservative98

and the masks all eventually expired.....How the HELL could this happen in a real world?


31 posted on 04/07/2020 1:03:59 PM PDT by Safetgiver (Islam makes barbarism look genteel.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Wuli
The good “investigative reporting” question our media could not be counted on to ask was/is “when they auctioned the stockpile off, did they use the proceeds to buy new ones, to minimize the cost for replacing the old ones, or did they just put the money into the city’s general expenditures.”

I'll take that one, they took the money and the money that should have been set aside for emergencies and spent it on Left wing initiatives - they are irresponsible and should all be fired and tried and jailed.

32 posted on 04/07/2020 1:04:30 PM PDT by 1Old Pro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog
Woo-Hoo Flu is a 100-year event. It simply makes no economic sense to remain in a constant state of readiness for 100-year events.

No, but you need a current scalable readiness plan, like what Trump is doing. Oh, and you don't need a blame game, unless we point the fingers where they actually should be pointed, the inept state governors.

33 posted on 04/07/2020 1:06:55 PM PDT by 1Old Pro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: conservative98

Continuing to illustrate the problem with socialism.....you eventually run out of someone else’s money.


34 posted on 04/07/2020 1:10:12 PM PDT by ealgeone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog

A lot of foreigners go to equipment auctions and they don’t care what anything costs, they just bid to win, load up a container and ship it overseas.


35 posted on 04/07/2020 1:11:00 PM PDT by conservative98
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: conservative98

36 posted on 04/07/2020 1:16:55 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog

“It simply makes no economic sense to remain in a constant state of readiness for 100-year events.”

Why does the US Government sale flood insurance base on the 100 year event?

I live in a flood plain, I spent an extra $16k to make sure my house can survive the 100 year event. In Feb the river got within 15 feet of my house.

I was very happy to know my house was ready and I had insurance if it did happen. My neighbors were freaking out, it is nice peace of mind to know you have a plan.


37 posted on 04/07/2020 1:19:44 PM PDT by DEPcom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: DEPcom

Insurance is one thing. The economics of stockpiling supplies for thing that happen so rarely do not make sense.

The example given of South Carolina loading up on snow plows for the next 25-year snowfall is an apt one.


38 posted on 04/07/2020 1:27:01 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: Safetgiver

But we need a stockpile, so we need to figure out how to protect it, and how to cycle through it.

Ventilators are harder, because we need to bring them through maintenance and some use, but they don’t “expire” so we aren’t throwing them out and restocking.


39 posted on 04/07/2020 1:28:58 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: CharlesWayneCT

CharlesWayneCT wrote:

“California did the same thing. After 2006, they purchased 4 portable hospitals on trucks. They also purchased thousands of ventilators, and hundreds of millions of masks and other PPE.

In 2011, when their budget was tight, they sold it all off.”

Who bought em?


40 posted on 04/07/2020 1:32:41 PM PDT by WildHighlander57 ((WildHighlander57 returning after lurking since 2000)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-72 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson