Good stuff. you can’t prepare for a pandemic in 30 days.
if your a large hospital, health system with multiple hospitals, or a large city like NYC or Chicago, you have a pandemic plan in place. A specific plan which includes predetermined number of beds, ventilators and masks.
We know have learned that many did not have a plan, or in the case of NYC ignored the requirements of their own plan. We now see a published report for example- from a government task force for the state of NY- which Cuomo received in 2015! It specifically told him he was short 15000 ventilators, just to name one thing.
now I am not trying to pick on him, but imagine how different the numbers and perception would be had NYC been prepared.
to throw gas on the fire- the mayor and Health commissioner there were Strongly encouraging people to be out and using the subway- in FEBRUARY!
so this is where a lot of people like me, who are not particularly fond of Trump, tend to gravitate toward him when we see the media completely ignoring what I just told you and blaming him when he’s the one that set the travel ban in place on Jan 31, while the large cities were unprepared, and many of our media and experts like Fox, CNN, New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post- even the great Dr. Fauci himself who had all the data at that time- got it wrong and were downplaying the severity.
I give them all a “c” given the false info being provided- including the President.
I am agreeing with your comments about NYC. NYC bungled it too. I recall their reticence at closing public schools because of child care issues it would create. This when Italian hospitals were overwhelmed. NYC didn't close public schools until the same day Iowa closed them. But, NYC was so far ahead in in the advancement of the disease, whether they knew it or not, than Iowa. They should have known the increased risk given the proximity of people to each other, and that there is greater international travel to NYC than to Dubuque. That said, testing was and remains a big issue in the response to this crisis nationwide
Iowa's problems are now ramping up which will lead to nationwide problems if advancements in testing are not forthcoming, immediately. Three meat packing factories are shutdown in Iowa due to the virus.
Two meat packing employees in Iowa died from COVID-19. Plus Iowa has a major outbreak at a Tyson facility in Waterloo employing 3,000 people which is not yet shutdown. Iowa has a fifth meat packing plant that has a worker or workers testing positive that remains open.
We don't have the tests in this state to do what needs to be done to keep these facilities running. We need to test every worker, and possibly more than once at the Waterloo facility, and sort them into those who test who can work, and those who test positively who are sidelined. There are many asymptomatics and presymptomatics who are spreading it. We need the capacity to retest those who tested positively after 14-days. And, we need to be able to test workers families if family members fall ill.
Meat packing, and food production in general, which Iowa has a lot of (ADM, General Mills, Quaker Oats), are the quintessential of the essential business type. We need to ramp up testing, or face unimaginable consequence.
