The Strategic National Stockpile has 12 million N95 masks and 30 million surgical masks (NYT)

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/health/coronavirus-masks-shortage.html

‘At War With No Ammo’: Doctors Say Shortage of Protective Gear Is Dire
The lack of proper masks, gowns and eye gear is imperiling the ability of medical workers to fight the coronavirus — and putting their own lives at risk.
By Andrew Jacobs, Matt Richtel and Mike Baker
March 19, 2020

The Open Cities Community Health Center in St. Paul, Minn., is considering shutting down because it doesn’t have enough face masks. Doctors at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis are performing invasive procedures on coronavirus patients with loose fitting surgical masks rather than the tight respirator masks recommended by health agencies. At a Los Angeles emergency room, doctors were given a box of expired masks, and when they tried to put them on, the elastic bands snapped.

With coronavirus cases soaring, doctors, nurses and other front-line medical workers across the United States are confronting a dire shortage of masks, surgical gowns and eye gear to protect them from the virus.

Howard K. Mell, a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians, said the crisis requires decisive federal action. He urged the White House to ramp up production of medical gear through the Defense Production Act powers, and he called on federal authorities to increase distributions from the Strategic National Stockpile, a repository of critical medical supplies for public health emergencies.

The stockpile has roughly 12 million N95 masks and 30 million surgical masks. The Department of Heath and Human Services, which oversees the stockpile, did not return emails requesting information about the supplies. The department has estimated that the country would need 3.5 billion masks in the event of a pandemic lasting a year.

“If this is a wartime situation, then now is the time to act,” said Dr. Mell, who is an emergency room doctor in Illinois.

[DonaldsRump]

1. Are you 'effin kidding me???

Why can't this stockpile be released now?

[dalton99a]

2. We have to save it for a national emergency

[alittlelark]

14. It may bacome a National Emergency when red states r in crisis.

[duforsure]

17. He'll use these issues as weapons

And watch , he'll pick fights with the Dem Governors using excuses to delay them getting needed supplies , but red states will get them first , or more of them. Like with PR or contractors of his he'll stiff us. Just like he'll do with this stimulus , he'll shortchange all of us. Then watch the markets tank as we spiral into a depression from trump and the gops huge mistake from under funding the stimulus to the people to get the economy restarted again. All while trump brags he's doing a great job , but all he's doing great at is promoting lies and propaganda, and leading us into an economic nightmare. The American people are going to be really pissed at trump and the GOP for this.

[greyl]

3. Right, but point is, even the stockpile is not nearly enough. nt

[pat_k]

7. Of course. Ramped up production too. But 12 million masks make for a lot of early phase protection.

Holding them back is nuts. Later on, when things have really gone south, the number won't make as big a dent as it can make NOW.

[Hortensis]

16. That's the second point. The first is the heroic first responders

working without masks who will die, spread the virus, be taken out of battle by illness, leading to more deaths, because this wicked-insane administration refused to/didn't provide them.

Decent people have an excuse for never conceiving of this. Both branches of government that are charged with administrating our nation controlled by a once-great party that's become murderously incompetent and corrupted to intense depravity.

[Rebl2]

21. True

but it’s a start.

[Dem2theMax]

4. Trump and his buddies want to make their own.

And then sell them to the hospitals.

I'm just making that up. Want to bet it comes true?

[renate]

5. I don't get how Trump doesn't realize that ACTING, instead of covering things up,would make him look

LIKE A FUCKING LEADER.

Appearances are everything to him... why doesn’t he try to appear as if he’s at least fucking trying?

I think this is the first time I’ve spelled that word out online, but

[pat_k]

8. Because for him...

Leadership = saying "We're doing a Tremendous job"

And he is...

As in the 3rd definition of Tremendous on dictionary.com:

3. dreadful or awful, as in character or effect; exciting fear; frightening; terrifying.

[sprinkleeninow]

11. I don't believe I've spelled this word out online myself, but he

DOES. NOT. GIVE. A. FLYING. SHIT.

[littlemissmartypants]

20. He can't help. He's a psychopath. They see inflicting pain and causing chaos as

Last edited Wed Mar 25, 2020, 03:59 AM - Edit history (1)

Their primary objectives. They live to create pain and sow discord, not to solve problems.

To "love is to hurt" is their twisted motto.

We are deeply confused if we suggest that they will "help out" or "provide solutions" because they are not able. Not even on the most simplistic level. Their brains are wired for inflicting pain not preventing it.

[pat_k]

6. Last month was the time to act

Every health care worker who could have been protected last week because they had begun distributing resources from the stockpile and did not, means more cases this week, and more deaths next week.

Every health care worker exposed next week because they continue to fail to act means more exposures while they are incubating the virus, more cases, more quarantined workers, and ever greater shortages of personnel.

That's a hell of a lot of preventable chaos and death.

Every healthcare worker exposed because supplies later run short for failure to ramp up production NOW....

Well, you get the picture. A child could.

Why can't DT?

[BigmanPigman]

9. The fucking moron needs to be hauled out of office NOW, he is killing people?

[Brainfodder]

12. That and Jared with Bro - Oscar Health - was why they didn't take the WHO tests?

Feels like high crimes to me!

I await the death count for my extended family.

Please don't be dumb when things re-open too soon, you know they will caz $ makes the world go around?

Good Luck!

[BigmanPigman]

13. There are going to be waves of this returning and people are greedy

and selfish. We're screwed with this POTUS. It reminds me of a joke from the old MASH TV show. Hawkeye said, "We're up a creek without a paddle. Hell, we don't even have a creek".

[Brother Buzz]

10. A shitload of them are expired, but still serviceable, especially with today's demands

Release them and let the lawyers sort it out down the road

N95s that are past their manufacturer-designated shelf life are no longer considered NIOSH-approved, as all manufacturer-designated

conditions of use must be met to maintain the NIOSH approval.

In times of increased demand and decreased supply, consideration can be made to use the N95s listed above past their manufacturer-designated shelf life when responding to COVID-19.

This preliminary information from the NIOSH study suggests certain N95 models beyond their manufacturer-designated shelf life[ii] will be protective. CDC recommends that N95s that have exceeded their manufacturer-designated shelf life should be used only as outlined in the Strategies for Optimizing the Supply of N95 Respirators.

Reports detailing the performance results of stockpiled respirators sampled from stockpile facilities are available on the NIOSH webpage.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/release-stockpiled-N95.html

[NBachers]

15. Distribute them? What?? Not when there's good money to be made!!

What do you think they are, shipping clerks?

[OhioChick]

18. What a joke

Hospitals will blow through that in a week or two.

[Midnight Writer]

19. Quick! Somebody call a shipping clerk!

[ffr]

22. November cannot come soon enough. Vote in democrats. Pass it on!

[BeckyDem]

23. We would need 3.5 billion masks in the event of a pandemic lasting a year.

So we will extend the pandemic because we are not prepared. Trump should be removed from office.