When it comes to Covid the United States is fifty different countries

I said - in the previous post - that it was dating back to early July. And if you want to believe that re-using PPE is not a bad thing, again, good for you.

 

Same, same.

 

Are you accusing Trump of causing shortages?
Do you not grasp the reality of millions of PPE devices suddenly being needed? Do you think someone somewhere can snap their fingers and make them magically appear?
Theres a limited manufacturing capability and what their is available is being distributed as well as humanly possible. You democrats have a very difficult time dealing with harsh reality.

 

You seem to have lost track of this thread. My initial comment (and supported by source links) was that the Feds were intercepting state orders. That's the harsh reality. Trump told the states that they were on their own - had to order themselves. Then, their orders were cancelled or unfulfilled because the feds confiscated them. Then, there was a massive clusterfuck with the national distribution.

You can talk in circles regarding this issue all you want, but the facts are clear.

 

Accusations are clear not facts. Fact is states are getting supplies in an orderly fashion so one state isn't awash in supplies while another goes without which would be the case in a every man for himself scenario. There's only so much to go around and Trump is attempting to distribute supplies equitably.
Leftist demean him for not acting like a king with forced shutdowns but when he does exert some authority they deride him for it.

 

Are you denying that there was an 'everyman/every state for himself' situation going on? Why, then, were states having to order supplies directly for themselves? Why did Kraft send the Patriots' plane to China to bring back supplies for Massachusetts? Why did Pritzker send two planes to China for supplies for Illinois?

 

In the beginning it was a desperate attempt to get supplies that were suddenly needed in unprecedented numbers and everyone was forced to scramble.
As much as I am generally opposed to the feds taking control of anything because of the bureaucracy that inevitably results in clusterfuks as you put it, in this case it's better than the alternative which would be some states awash in supplies while others went without. In this emergency situation federal intervention is the lesser of two evils.

 

Then why did Trump tell the States that they had to place orders on their own? Why were States bidding against one another for equipment?

 

That was in the beginning phases when states were told to look wherever they could for supplies dont look to the feds to source everything for you. In the sudden emergency of a pandemic it was better to have fifty entities beating the brush than one.

 

LOL. You're all over the place

 

You think its better for fifty entities to bid against one another? Instead of one mega buyer who could negotiate better pricing?

 

Quote; “All these comparisons of the U.S. to countries like France, Spain etc are flawed.....”

Where was your mouth when back in early April, Trump proudly compared the U.S. and the most affected European nations?

 

Not if there was only one source no but states were told to beat the brush for any source they could find.
If you suddenly need to shoot lots of birds it's better to have fifty dogs out working the brush than one.

 

But, see, that's not how purchasing works. One central source can get large discounts for bulk orders. One would think that would be important. And, still, you have not addressed the issue of the Feds confiscating orders that the States placed with suppliers.

 

Same place it is now. Right below my nose and above my chin.

Trump speaks for the United States as a whole and that's what he did. He can't make fifty different statements for fifty different states.

 

There was and is no one central source for PPEs.
As far as feds confiscating orders I've seen the accusations but no evidence of that so I can't really comment without all the facts.

 

Okay - if various sources aren't enough for you, I can't help any further. Enjoy that bubble!

 

Your sources were accusations and opinions without any comprehensive background material. They were nothing but the usual anti Trump opinion journalism hit pieces. I need facts to form my opinions unlike you who only need opinions and accusations to form yours.

 

I'm not really sure what you think facts are versus accusations. Have a look through these...and there are plenty available online, all telling the same story. Please note, I didn't include links from the sources that are usually trashed as MSM or Snopes (although they confirmed it as well...)
As the number of coronavirus cases surged in Massachusetts, nurses at a hospital in Milford were desperate. They held up cardboard signs outside the hospital asking for donations of protective gear to wear while treating infected patients.

William Touhey Jr. thought he could help. Touhey is the fire chief and emergency management director in this small town outside of Boston. He did some legwork, and placed an order for 30,000 protective gowns from overseas.

"We were hearing good things that it was coming," Touhey said.

Then he got a phone call from the distributor last week.

"The order had been redirected, as they put it, from us to FEMA," Touhey said. "It's just the way times are right now, where everybody's fighting for a very limited supply of material."
https://www.npr.org/2020/04/15/8353...directing-or-poaching-their-medical-supply-or

Although President Trump has directed states and hospitals to secure what supplies they can, the federal government is quietly seizing orders, leaving medical providers across the country in the dark about where the material is going and how they can get what they need to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

Hospital and clinic officials in seven states described the seizures in interviews over the past week. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is not publicly reporting the acquisitions, despite the outlay of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, nor has the administration detailed how it decides which supplies to seize and where to reroute them.

Officials who’ve had materials seized also say they’ve received no guidance from the government about how or if they will get access to the supplies they ordered. That has stoked concerns about how public funds are being spent and whether the Trump administration is fairly distributing scarce medical supplies.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-04-07/hospitals-washington-seize-coronavirus-supplies

Massachusetts ordered 3 million masks that were confiscated by the federal government at the Port of New York, forcing them to lean on New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft to use his team plane to fly in 1 million N95 masks from China. Hospitals in states like California and Florida reported that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had seized their supplies without explanation.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariels...-confiscating-covid-tests-trump/#1e16721675d3

The federal government has been quietly seizing orders of medical supplies, protective gear and testing materials across the country, and Alabama has not been immune.

The federal government’s actions, blocking the shipment of those supplies, impeded the state’s ability to roll out widespread testing and added to supply shortages in the state, officials say.
https://www.alreporter.com/2020/04/...-supplies-slowed-states-response-to-covid-19/

 

They glossed right over apologies they owed to the President for misjudging and falsely accusing him. And went straight to accusing him from another angle.

 

Scrolling through your links I find comments like the following.


"In an interview with Washington Post Live on Thursday, Hogan said that he was concerned by reports that the federal government had confiscated crucial medical supplies from other states like Massachusetts."

"And officials at a system in Massachusetts were unable to determine where its order of masks went."

Those are just two examples of rampant hyperbolic hysteria and rumors as facts.

Looking into this further sheds some light on the subject.


"FEMA spokesperson Lizzie Litzow denied the agency was seizing any shipments, The New York Times reported. FEMA has not immediately responded to Business Insider's request for comment and clarification.

Litzow told The Times that FEMA is aware that "prioritizing PPE deliveries to COVID hot spots can have the unintended consequence of disrupting the regular supply chain deliveries to other areas of the country that are also preparing for the coronavirus."


https://www.businessinsider.com/cor...-taking-states-masks-ventilator-orders-2020-4


It's an interesting topic for discussion and you should start a thread on it, I'd participate. In this thread it would be nice to stay on the subject of the OP which is fifty governor's making fifty different covid policies.

 

If discussing fifty different governors playing against one another to get needed covid supplies isn't on topic, I really don't know what is...

 

Well if you insist and nobody seems interested in challenging the OP assertion anyway so I'll play along.

You need to pick a story and stick with it. First you claim FEMA is confiscating orders then you claim states are forced to compete against eachother.
FEMA says they are confiscating nothing but whether they are or not may be semantics. They do say they are making choices of where supplies go to ensure nobody goes without which debunks your claim that states are forced to compete with eachother.

Just to clarify your position on this do you think FEMA should stay out of this and to the victor goes the spoils?

 

Both were happening. First, states were pitted against one another and then their shipments were being hijacked. And I think that if Trump wanted the governors to manage it on their own, the FEMA should have stayed clear and simply managed the federal stockpile.

 

So every state for themselves. To the victor goes the spoils.
FEMA seems to be attempting to distribute limited supplies on an as needed basis and I'm sure that in a huge bureaucracy like that there is lots of fumbling and bumbling which is why I'm generally against government bureaucracies taking control of anything but in this case I'd say its better than your every state for themselves plan which would leave some states with patients dying in hallways while others were awash in supplies.