
After One Tweet, This Man Got $69M from New York for Ventilators - jbegley
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/after-one-tweet-to-president-trump-this-man-got-69-million
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pdog
It sounds like NY didn't do their job.

NY pays millions of dollars to these companies and none of them deliver any
ventilators because NY didn't do any due diligence.

This one guy gets called out because a NY state official claims he came at the
"direct recommendation of the White House." This makes no sense, but Buzzfeed
rolls with it, and it's likely CYA for the state official to pass the blame
onto the federal government.

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ghufran_syed
"After this article was published, a spokesperson for Pence, Katie Miller,
said in a statement that "The White House Coronavirus Task Force was never
informed of this contract and was not involved in it at all."

~~~
koolba
And of course that note is at the bottom of the article.

This is a perfect example of fake news. Deep down there is a story of
incompetence and duress on the part of NY State, but instead it’s presented to
the public as yet another made up anti-Trump circle jerk.

~~~
ceejayoz
1\. This administration has outright lied about a number of things, including
denying to the press things we know actually did happen.

2\. "The White House Coronavirus Task Force was never informed of this
contract" does not actually deny having recommended the vendor to NY. It's a
pretty careful wording that doesn't actually contradict the article at all.

~~~
koolba
> 2\. "The White House Coronavirus Task Force was never informed of this
> contract" does not actually deny having recommended the vendor to NY.

By truncating the rest of the quoted text you’re further proving my point of
the fake news circle jerk. The _full_ quote from the article that you
selectively truncated is (emphasis mine):

>> "The White House Coronavirus Task Force was never informed of this contract
_and was not involved in it at all._ "

My layman’s reading of “ _not involved at all_ ” would cover denying
recommending the vendor.

~~~
ceejayoz
The rest of the wording is just as careful, and logically follows from the
first part (you can hardly be involved in a contract if you don’t know about
it).

“We recommended the vendor and put them in touch with NY, then washed our
hands of it” fits just fine with the wording there.

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baybal2
Lets use this as an opportunity to count how many countries actually managed
to deliver on making brand new emergency ventilators during the emergency?

I counted only three: Turkey — Baykar Biyovent, Pakistan — Kamra PakVent 1,
India — Marutu Suzuki emergency ventilator. That's very few.

Even if NYC government didn't dish those money to him, it would still be
unrealistic to expect anybody being able to deliver on that in any capacity,
other than existing manufacturers.

How they didn't know that?

Similarly, the story with PCR tests. Those were available at least a month
prior to emergency in NYC, yet USG spent sweet time dishing out random grants
and contracts, despite the solution already being on the table.

~~~
Consultant32452
Didn't Tesla deliver new emergency ventilators?

~~~
gshdg
You mean this?

[https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-tesla-ventilators-
coronav...](https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-tesla-ventilators-coronavirus-
covid19-resmed-bipap-machines-1495927)

> But as noted by NPR, The American Society of Anesthesiologists warned in
> guidance published on February 23 that BiPAP machines may actually "increase
> the risk of infectious transmission." Experts have said the non-invasive
> devices can let air escape, resulting in potential virus spread.

~~~
koheripbal
They might slightly increase the already high level of transmission in the
covid wing of the hospital, but the point is that they save the life of the
person they are ventilating.

I'm always surprised at the degree to which people will take a good deed and
twist it make it seem wrong or ineffective. Why? Is it a general hatred for
Musk? ...or something more general? A hatred of successful people? Or a hatred
of wealthy people? Why the irrational bias?

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Simulacra
You mean the state of New York did absolutely zero due diligence? I understand
they were grasping in grappling with trying to get all the ventilators they
could, but did no one think to Google the company?

~~~
ceejayoz
> A state official, speaking on background because he was not authorized to
> publicly discuss the terms of the deal, said New York entered into the
> contract with Oren-Pines at the direct recommendation of the White House
> coronavirus task force.

I've run into vendors who don't have websites or any appreciable presence,
where you wind up going "holy crap, I had no idea you existed and you serve
like half the industry". (I've also _been_ one of these.)

It's plausible they assumed the White House had one of these sorts of vendors.

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Touche
How can this be real life.

~~~
Dramatize
America elected a reality TV personality to be President.

~~~
hervature
Except the President doesn't run New York state, the governor does.

~~~
ceejayoz
The article states the White House recommended the vendor to New York.

~~~
dantheman
With New York's view on the white house and their capabilities - not doing due
diligence is on them.

~~~
bathtub365
And with the position of authority the federal government is in, giving poor
recommendations is on them. Responsibility goes both ways.

~~~
dantheman
Sure - we know the whitehouse is incompetent - we've known that since day one.

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KoftaBob
He likely escaped to Israel with that money, good luck getting it back.

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arthurcolle
Classic strategy, over promise and under deliver

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xwdv
If I got $69 million I could figure out a way to get the same amount of
ventilators and still have some profit left over, guaranteed. Let’s talk.

~~~
cocoa19
Lol'd at this comment. Another top post today titled "I could do that in a
weekend" comes to mind.

