New York Governor Andrew Cuomo blasted FEMA during a press
conference for sending 400 medical ventilators when his state needs
30,000.
However, in 2015 the New York State Department of
Health specifically studied the issue, warned about a critical lack of
ventilators during a pandemic, and the New York Governor made a specific
decision NOT to order them: [pdf link here]
sicsempertyrannis | For the past week it appeared that NY
Governor Cuomo realized it was more important to be an adult and eschew
partisan politics. That was then. He is now in full partisan panic
pandemonium. He is now accusing the Feds of dragging their feet in
getting NYC 30,000 ventilators.
Here is the quote:
"What are you doing sending 400 when I need 30,000 ventilators," Cuomo said. "You're missing the magnitude of the problem."
No Cuomo, you do not understand. For starters, you do not have 10,000
patients on a ventilator now. The number of patients who test positive
does not mean that all will require a ventilator. The numbers available
so far indicate most who test positive for corona virus are not being
hospitalized. That means the numbers for ventilators are not going to
skyrocket and immediately outstrip the existing capability.
But Cuomo is missing a more important point. Shame on him. He has a
duty to help educate his constituency. Let us start with the production
reality--you cannot magically produce ventilators overnight. The
existing manufacturers have limited, not UNLIMITED, capabilities to
expand production. Bringing other companies, like GM on line, will
require about a month to retool and repurpose machinery and quality
control techs.
Producing the machines is the easy part. It is the human
infrastructure that is the problem. If there are 30,000 ventilators up
and running then you need an additional 45,000 ICU qualified nurses and
an additional 22,500 Respiratory Therapy Technicians. (I am assuming one
ICU nurse can handle two patients per shift. There are three eight hour
shifts per day. I am assuming that one Respiratory Therapy Tech can
handle 8 ventilators per shift and there are three eight hour shifts per
day).
