What needs to be done

[Horatio Parker]

The first big need is medical supplies, facilities and personnel. That is why we need to finance immediate domestic production of masks, oxygen tanks, ventilators, and the construction and staffing of field hospitals, including the conversion of existing structures such as hotels, dormitories and stadiums, and the hiring and upgrading of staff.

Ideally HHS should finance supplies, the Army Corps of Engineers should run construction, and FEMA should manage and coordinate. The Federal Reserve should be empowered to buy unlimited debt from state and local governments and both debt and equity from private companies. If Congress cannot agree quickly on specifics, create a government-owned Health Finance Corporation and give it unlimited full-faith-and-credit bonding authority, as was done for the Depression and WWII.

Read the whole thing, it's not long:

https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/what-the-government-needs-to-do-next

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

The first big need is medical supplies, facilities and personnel. That is why we need to finance immediate domestic production of masks, oxygen tanks, ventilators, and the construction and staffing of field hospitals, including the conversion of existing structures such as hotels, dormitories and stadiums, and the hiring and upgrading of staff.

Ideally HHS should finance supplies, the Army Corps of Engineers should run construction, and FEMA should manage and coordinate. The Federal Reserve should be empowered to buy unlimited debt from state and local governments and both debt and equity from private companies. If Congress cannot agree quickly on specifics, create a government-owned Health Finance Corporation and give it unlimited full-faith-and-credit bonding authority, as was done for the Depression and WWII.

Read the whole thing, it's not long:

https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/what-the-government-needs-to-do-next

The company that prints my photos has already switched over to making face shields. Unfortunately, they're running into raw materials shortages.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Ultimately, we are sidelined by the realities of the world. Production requires materials, not just machines.

 

[Elixir]

The first big need is medical supplies, facilities and personnel. That is why we need to finance immediate domestic production of masks, oxygen tanks, ventilators, and the construction and staffing of field hospitals, including the conversion of existing structures such as hotels, dormitories and stadiums, and the hiring and upgrading of staff.

Ideally HHS should finance supplies, the Army Corps of Engineers should run construction, and FEMA should manage and coordinate. The Federal Reserve should be empowered to buy unlimited debt from state and local governments and both debt and equity from private companies. If Congress cannot agree quickly on specifics, create a government-owned Health Finance Corporation and give it unlimited full-faith-and-credit bonding authority, as was done for the Depression and WWII.

Read the whole thing, it's not long:

https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/what-the-government-needs-to-do-next

If Trump was any kind of leader he would have invoked the Defense Production Act weeks ago and the pipelines would at least be filling.
But because of his prioritizing the economy over people's lives, it is now inevitable that our systems will be overwhelmed - not with twice as many patients as they can handle, but with big multiples of that capacity.

The red line across the bottom of the chart below represents current ICU capacity. Not sure exactly where we are on the time axis ... day 50-ish I think. This is a "no lockdown, minimal social distancing" curve, and the best outcome scenario is a much flatter and shorter lived, but still many times the ICU capacity.



Trump is joking about it. There will be some amazing videos...

 

[Horatio Parker]

Ultimately, we are sidelined by the realities of the world. Production requires materials, not just machines.

Hence the need for an authority to coordinate.

 

[Elixir]

Ultimately, we are sidelined by the realities of the world. Production requires materials, not just machines.

Hence the need for an authority to coordinate.

That should be the military, but Commander In Chief Trump is an incompetent, bumbling career mobster with zero military experience or knowledge.

 

[Horatio Parker]

Ultimately, we are sidelined by the realities of the world. Production requires materials, not just machines.

Hence the need for an authority to coordinate.

That should be the military, but Commander In Chief Trump is an incompetent, bumbling career mobster with zero military experience or knowledge.

That would be FEMA, according to the article.

 

[Elixir]

That should be the military, but Commander In Chief Trump is an incompetent, bumbling career mobster with zero military experience or knowledge.

That would be FEMA, according to the article.

That would HAVE BEEN, if this was the very beginning when FEMA's resources were up to the task, and manufacturing was already accelerated. But the scale of need has been so escalated by inaction that at this point that the military is going to be required to respond, starting with the Army Corps of Engineers. Spain is getting off easy - this is a very small taste of what we're in for in a few weeks:

patients spotted lying on floor at overrun Madrid hospital

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Money isn't going to do a lot to beef up our response to this. The whole logistics chain is geared towards meeting normal demand, not pandemic demand. When companies shift to making medical supplies they very quickly find they can't get the raw materials they need.

The main need for money is to weather the economic disruption.

 

[Horatio Parker]

That should be the military, but Commander In Chief Trump is an incompetent, bumbling career mobster with zero military experience or knowledge.

That would be FEMA, according to the article.

That would HAVE BEEN, if this was the very beginning when FEMA's resources were up to the task, and manufacturing was already accelerated. But the scale of need has been so escalated by inaction that at this point that the military is going to be required to respond, starting with the Army Corps of Engineers. Spain is getting off easy - this is a very small taste of what we're in for in a few weeks:

patients spotted lying on floor at overrun Madrid hospital

Spain isn't getting off easy. Spain is a disaster.

 

[Horatio Parker]

Money isn't going to do a lot to beef up our response to this. The whole logistics chain is geared towards meeting normal demand, not pandemic demand. When companies shift to making medical supplies they very quickly find they can't get the raw materials they need.

The main need for money is to weather the economic disruption.

Can you say "rationing"?