New York City stockpiled ventilators for a pandemic, only to later auction them off: report

Fox News ^ | 4/7/20 | Tyler Olsen

[bitt]

p

[Eleutheria5]

Bloomy did nothing wrong. He built up the stockpile. It was Blahblah who auctioned it off.

[Paul R.]

I suggest that regarding various diseases’ symptoms you just go to the CDC website. Basically, COVID-19 attacks most dangerously deep in the lower lungs and makes acutely ill or kills at least as many (likely more) of the people it infects as the average flu. In critical cases it appears to often trigger an immune system overreaction worse than the disease itself. As with the flu, other problems a person has usually factor in, in severe cases. (Diabetes, smoking or other lung damage, compromised immune system, age, etc.) For younger people without other health issues, COVID-19 may not be much worse than a common cold. However, a great many people do have “other issues”. 30% of the US population is obese, for example. Diabetes and pre-diabetes is fairly common. And so on. Additionally, like a serious or critical case of flu, often secondary problems are induced that can be very dangerous or damaging to the weakened victim. (My younger brother’s flu a few years back lead to necrotic pneumonia that destroyed 2/3 of his lungs. He barely survived his stay in the ICU on a ventilator.)

Beyond that, I’ll let others delve further into the symptoms / illness itself. There is a great deal of information in the “Daily” coronavirus threads on FR. Check them out.

Where COVID-19 really differs from flus is its contagiousness. Being “novel” (new), we have no vaccine. This is a double whammy: More people exposed to a given viral load get sick, and more of the sick are sicker. (Even if a flu vaccine “misses” somewhat in a given year, it usually aids the immune system in fighting the flu to some extant.)

COVID-19 appears to remain infectious longer on various surfaces (skin, doorknobs, keypads, clothes, etc., than flu viruses do. This abets its spread.

Perhaps nastiest of all, COVID-19 can be spread by infected persons who show mild or no symptoms. (Infected but no symptoms = “asymptomatic”.) Flu can do this too, but usually for only a short period before the victim feels like crap and goes to bed. COVID-19 victims have been shown to be unknowing “spreaders” for 3 days. (I suspect we’ll eventually see documentation of spread for 5 days or more from people who thought they just had a very mild cold.)

All this makes COVID-19 considerably more infectious than the flu, which means that unmitigated (uncorralled) it can lead to very rapid rises in the numbers of serious and critical cases. This is on top of existing needs. As was seen in Italy, for example, there may not be enough hospital capacity to take care of all the potentially fatal cases.

[KC_Lion]

Why didn't Trump do anything to stop them!? :O

Looks like another Impeachment charge if you ask me.

[Maris Crane]

Thank you so much, Paul, for an excellent explanation to, at least, some of the differences.

Two major points:
COVID-19 appears to attack the lungs with a vengeance, and
It could be contracted from surfaces.

I really appreciate the time you took to explain.
I think it is of major importance to clearly, as you did, give easily understood facts..

Thanks again.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

#3. When asked about his administration’s selling off medical ventilators, Mayor DeBlasio scratched his ass in trying to find an answer to this very complex question.

[noiseman]

” 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.”

A 100 year event? We’ve had multiple close shaves in just the past several years with SARS, MERS, and then a full-blown disaster with the Wuhan Coronavirus. Also, when it comes to risk management, you can’t only consider the likelihood of a bad thing happening. You must give equal consideration to the magnitude of the damage that will be inflicted if the bad thing does happen.

We clearly can’t tolerate the economic devastation another pandemic like this one would cause, so therefore we can’t accept the risk of being unprepared, even if it’s likely to be a rare event.

[newnhdad]

Most of the ventilators that everyone is making now will end up on EBay in 2022.

[COBOL2Java]

the a$$holes also stole a shipment of masks headed to my hospital that we were in desperate need of. I had to reuse a mask for 3 days and they have plenty. spit.

My daughter's an RN and a CEN. Administration told her she'd have to reuse her N95 masks for days as well.

I went and had a shipment sent to her.

[eartick]

haha

[Liz]

De Blasio's office did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment
WRT NYC buying, storing, then auctioning off ventilators stockpiled for a pandemic.

THE STUPIDITY OF THE TERM-LIMITED-FAILED PREZ CANDIDATE DEBLOBBIO's DESPERATE BID
TO HANG ONTO POWER (PLUS A TIMELY KIBOSH TO HIS WIFE'S INANE POLITICAL AMBITIONS).

Tempus fugit, and by March 5 de Blasio seemed to acknowledge the virus had spread beyond control.
<><> “You have to assume it could be anywhere in the city,” he said.
<><> Always careful to preserve his political bona fides, the Mayor did not want to cause undue alarm,
<><> Rev de Blasio then told NY'ers to go on with their normal lives, which left many confused about the danger they faced.
<><> De Blobbio's hand-plucked DODOBIRD health commissioner, sought to reassure NY'ers, especially commuters:
<><> “this is not something you’re going to contract in the subway or on the bus, the moron H/C actually said.”
<><> The mayor sucked-up bigtime, and reiterated her lunacy point several times in early March.

[Liz]

SHOCKER----NY Times: Cuomo And De Blasio Didn’t Keep Up With The Outbreak
Hotair ^ | 04/08/20 | JOHN SEXTON Posted by CaptainK
Finally, belatedly, the NY Times has published an article which takes a hard look at the coronavirus response
by Cuomo and de Blasio. The article concludes that neither elected official did a great job responding to the virus: (Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...

================================================

Duped New Yorkers are urging DeBlasio to rid the city of his Hand-picked Health Commissioner.
She stupidly put NY'ers at risk with her sucking up and social justice garbage

On Feb. 2, with the city’s first suspected coronavirus case under investigation and China’s death toll skyrocketing, NYC’s first latina Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot touted upcoming crowded NYC Chinese New Year events. “As we gear up to celebrate the #LunarNewYear in NYC, I want to assure New Yorkers that there is no reason for anyone to change their holiday plans, avoid the subway, or certain parts of the city because of #coronavirus,” she tweeted.

Mark D. Levine, Chair of De Blasio's New York City Council's health committee, lauded how “huge crowds gathering in NYC’s Chinatown” was a “powerful show of defiance of #coronavirus scare....

=======================================================

December 19, 2018---Mayor de Blasio And His Wife Announce First Latina Health Commissioner

NEW YORK—Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the Latina Health Commissioner will double down on the agency’s commitment to achieving health equity. Dr. Barbot understands that improving the health of our city starts with keeping health equity at the center of our work,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “

First Lady Chirlane McCray: “Dr. Barbot has dedicated her life to eliminating disparities and injustices in health care,” said “I am proud to welcome a public servant so deeply committed to ensuring that the WHOLE patient is treated—mind and body. New York City is fortunate to have such an exceptional new Health Commissioner.”

==============================

ANNOUNCING THE "COVID-19 IGNORANCE PRIZE" FOR INCOMPREHENSIBLE SOCIAL JUSTICE BAFFLEGAB:
DeBlasio and his wife's hand-picked first Latina Commissioner of Health
<><> boasted "she uses a racial equity lens" to administer health.
<><> setup a "Center for Health Equity"
<><> said she's "operationalizing the Health De partment’s commitment to racial justice"
<><> is focusing on "medicalizing social justice."