Oh god. Trump got less than one sentence into this before triggering my gag reflex. Just trying not to throw things at the tv.
How did that go?
He’s still talking. I’ll let you know. What a fucking asshole…
He keeps saying “we are doing a great job.” This is where we are.
Oof! They have less than two weeks to order them, get them shipped, installed and ready to go. And I really really doubt that there is a warehouse somewhere stacked full of them.
Actually, there kinda is, in the strategic stockpile, but I have no idea how many there are nor of what type or vintage. But no, there are not otherwise large numbers out there. Those machines are really expensive and not something we just have “lying around.”
There is some good news though
Gosh! Someone was actually thinking ahead. I bet whatever hack admin Trump installed never knew these existed until the staff felt they had a need to know.
He need to give (yes give!) these to:
- nursing homes
- grocery stores
- pharmacies
- hospitals
- clinics
- emergency medical responders
- firefighers
- police
- acute care facilities
- and any other credentialed health care provider or related service, esp. those with waiting rooms and big staff
Late stage capitalism has its perils.
Cry me a river.
I can’t believe I am saying this but here I go: Amazon cracking down is not a bad thing–OMG did they do something right for a change? Like, for the good of the tribe?
In addition, the CDC Strategic National Stockpile has an estimated 8,900 ventilators as of 2010.3 Ventilators are stored and kept as managed inventory. Malatino et al report that shipments from managed inventory “could arrive within 24-36 hours of the federal decision to deploy them.”4
That sounds like a lot, at first, but no, not really in a national surge.
For Seattle? Yeah, that will make a significant dent in their needs. For the nation? Spitting in the ocean to raise the tide.
ETA I’ve run these numbers before, but broadly speaking, we have about 60k ICU beds, and maybe half that many flex / step down beds that could probably be used as such, so let’s say 100k possible ventilated beds. Conservatively, 40% of the population gets infected, 5% of those need critical care, leads to about 7 million patients. This is where flattening the curve really becomes critical. If we have a significant chunk of those patients at the same time? We are screwed. Now, seriously, it will take an insane amount of flattening to stay under that limit, and those estimates are very conservative, but we have to do all we can to minimize at the very least by how much we exceed our capacity. This is literally life and death stuff. Please take it seriously.
“ Who knew Colonel Potter was such a MacGuyver and could build a Wangensteen suction out of odds and ends from the kitchen?”
Sadly - we’re not on teevee.
This not surprising, it is actually how most viruses work, but we were really hoping SARS-CoV-2 would be different. Hint: it’s not.
In the Guardian obit I read it had a story of how tickled he was to be described as a Canadian writer in a Dublin bookshop, but no, in general we claim absolutely anybody who will have us. And if writers were not celebrated if they criticised the catholic church there goes the entire 20th century.
I think he was famous when I was a kid but current tastes run more to the Sally Rooney, or Eimear McBride, or Emma Donoghue, or Kevin Barry. I remember being asked by a Dutch person years ago what was the most clichéd Irish book or film story ever and I said guy grows up in repressive religious rural Ireland and hates his dad. Turns out that’s the Dutch one too. I never had too much interest in that stuff as I grew up in an urban environment that was not as monocultural as that stereotype.
Sorry to derail, on topic I see we have been added to the no fly zone! Good. I felt left out. I saw the Torygraph front page had a story about how covid-19 was making it all about nation states again. As fucking if. It ignores state lines. See also: why can’t the US ban travel from Washington state? (joking, not joking)
gloves would just be another surface like your hands to transfer germs, so it seems roughly the same. we still use gloves for food prep ( fresh produce prep, and bulk. though why people are buying out of bulk bins right now is a mystery. see also: congregating in grocery stores. )
and yeah. in the us, it depends on the bank. sometimes even a phone swipe triggers a signature. there’s also debit, and ebt/snap.
The kids are grown now, but I know I got funny looks when they were younger because most moms were using digital thermometers to take their kids’ temperatures at the slightest indication of illness. I tried that for a while with my oldest, but discovered the home versions aren’t totally accurate anyway, and as you say, it’s more knowing that your kid is hotter/clammier than usual and how it’s affecting them, rather than having a number to the 0.hundredths-place.
TV says that the Diocese of NYC have canceled Catholic Mass.
