Coronavirus Thread - Topic

Five years ago, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services tried to plug a crucial hole in its preparations for a global pandemic, signing a $13.8 million contract with a Pennsylvania manufacturer to create a low-cost, portable, easy-to-use ventilator that could be stockpiled for emergencies.

This past September, with the design of the new Trilogy Evo Universal finally cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, HHS ordered 10,000 of the ventilators for the Strategic National Stockpile at a cost of $3,280 each.

But as the pandemic continues to spread across the globe, there is still not a single Trilogy Evo Universal in the stockpile.

Instead last summer, soon after the FDA’s approval, the Pennsylvania company that designed the device — a subsidiary of the Dutch appliance and technology giant Royal Philips N.V. — began selling two higher-priced commercial versions of the same ventilator around the world.

Quote

Last Friday, President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to begin mass-producing another company’s ventilator under a federal contract. But neither Trump nor other senior officials made any mention of the Trilogy Evo Universal. Nor did HHS officials explain why they did not force Philips to accelerate delivery of these ventilators earlier this year, when it became clear that the virus was overwhelming medical facilities around the world.

An HHS spokeswoman told ProPublica that Philips had agreed to make the Trilogy Evo Universal ventilator “as soon as possible.” However, a Philips spokesman said the company has no plan to even begin production anytime this year.

Instead, Philips is negotiating with a White House team led by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to build 43,000 more complex and expensive hospital ventilators for Americans stricken by the virus.

yay.

This post was edited by Arsenic_Touch on Apr 1 2020 12:24am

Kayeto

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#2944

Apr 1 2020 12:46am

Quote (Arsenic_Touch @ Apr 1 2020 02:20am)

https://www.propublica.org/article/taxpayers-paid-millions-to-design-a-low-cost-ventilator-for-a-pandemic-instead-the-company-is-selling-versions-of-it-overseas-

yay.

The full story of those Trilogy Evos starts 13 years ago, check out an article I linked a few pages back.

The free market dropped the ball on that one. If we live in a country where the will of the voters is that protection against outbreaks be given the utmost priority (on par with military), then there's no doubt that a centralized command structure is best suited to that task.

I am assuming that people's attitudes are going to change after all this, but it will be interesting to see exactly what kind of "new normal" we end up with.

This post was edited by Kayeto on Apr 1 2020 12:47am

Thor123422

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#2945

Apr 1 2020 01:01am

If Trump gets reelected in November I think it'll be time to seriously reconsider this whole "Democracy" thing.

Ghot

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#2946

Apr 1 2020 01:04am

Quote (Thor123422 @ Apr 1 2020 03:01am)

If Trump gets reelected in November I think it'll be time to seriously reconsider this whole "Democracy" thing.

Well, since the POTUS is elected by the electoral college, your statement, doesn't really make much sense.
In the US the people's "Democracy" comes from voting for Congressional members and State officials.

/e The system of govt. in the US does have a problem. But it's not the one most people notice. Party-line voting is a major problem. People seems to get all worked up for the POTUS election, when they SHOULD be getting all worked up about all the other elections. Further, they should vote the platforms, rather than the party. <---- not voting the platforms, (aka, voting for a party), is where the troubles start.

This post was edited by Ghot on Apr 1 2020 01:17am

Whiskers

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#2947

Apr 1 2020 01:17am

passing 1mil confirmed positive cases in 2 days

probably was already way over for non-tested people tbh

Kayeto

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#2948

Apr 1 2020 01:58am

Quote (Whiskers @ Apr 1 2020 03:17am)

passing 1mil confirmed positive cases in 2 days :(
probably was already way over for non-tested people tbh

also, China admits that they haven't been reporting asymptomatic carriers, even the one who did test positive: https://thehill.com/policy/international/490315-china-did-not-count-coronavirus-positives-if-patient-had-no-symptoms

Black XistenZ

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#2949

Apr 1 2020 02:58am

Quote (Brian_D @ 1 Apr 2020 02:55)

Glad you are okay!

Quote (EndlessSky @ 1 Apr 2020 04:03)

PaRD cases recovered: 1

Thank you!

Quote (Bazi @ 1 Apr 2020 03:23)

200k would be an extraordinary effort, we’ll see about that

Do you mean "it would take extraordinary effort to keep our total deaths below 200k, instead of much higher", or do you mean "if we get 200k deaths in the end, that would put tremendous pressure on our system and require extraordinary effort to handle at its peak"?

Kayeto

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#2950

Apr 1 2020 03:36am

https://mobile.twitter.com/DBelardoMD/status/1245031918493630464

Chicago nurse quits her job because her hospital wouldn't allow her to use her own N95 mask that she provided for herself.

This post was edited by Kayeto on Apr 1 2020 03:38am

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