
After Considering $1B for Ventilators, White House Has Second Thoughts - smacktoward
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/us/politics/coronavirus-ventilators-trump.html
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anonsubmit2671
Chocked full of misleading, regurgitated government propaganda:

\- Facemasks work if worn, fitted, tested and removed properly. Plus, it's not
just about the person protecting themselves, but protecting others. The
problem is for-profit hospitals and ineffective government (HHS' SNS) failed
to prepare, and just-in-time inventory doesn't work during a crisis. It's like
telling people to plant trees or recycle to "fight" climate change. There
should've been billions of masks and respirators ready and given to anyone and
everyone. I happen to have a dozen or so 3M NIOSH N95 respirators because of
one of the worst forest fires in decades, but there aren't any hospitals for
miles.

\- Eye protection, with indirect or no venting, is also essential. Droplets in
the eyes is a no-go.

\- Hand washing doesn't have much to do with this current outbreak because
it's not the primary mode of transmission. This is habits-manipulation health
theater. Maybe some people need it, but this comes across as hygiene theater
bikeshedding.

\- Manipulating people into grossly under-preparing (two weeks? what a joke.)
and making unnecessary trips, putting themselves, their families and others in
danger is irresponsible. 3-6 months of shelf-stable food that would be eaten
anyways is a more sensible number, and reduces risky trips by 90%.

From "the paper of record" that decides what people "should" believe.

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8bitsrule
tldr:

"The initial projection, one senior administration official said, was that
after three weeks of preparation it could produce an initial run of 20,000
ventilators .... That number then shrank to 7,500 ventilators in the initial
run, or maybe 5,000...

"Those issues appeared to come to a head on Wednesday afternoon, when FEMA
told the White House that it was premature to make a decision. The $1.5
billion price tag comes to around $18,000 a ventilator. And the overall cost,
by comparison, is roughly equal to buying 18 F-35s...."

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rladd
Putting it in those terms is far too charitable. It would cost LESS than the
price of ONE B2 bomber (which was $2.1B... in 1997 dollars).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_B-2_Spirit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_B-2_Spirit)

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_red
Unreadable paywall?

~~~
lalaland1125
[https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-
firefox](https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-firefox) seems to work
for me.

~~~
deepaksurti
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