>> > >> >>> >> >>>>> >> >>>>>> The news seems full of stories about hospitals
>> >>>>>> being overrun with Covid patients. Weren't there hospital
>> >>>>>> ships in a couple harbors last spring to provide more space
>> >>>>>> for sick people? New York City and San Francisco maybe? >> >>>>>
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> Yes, New York had one but it did not work out well. Hospital ships are
>> >>>>> designed to treat battle wounds and similar disaster and don
>> >>>>> t work well with covid patients. Spaces are tight, little room for
>> >>>>> needed equipment.
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>>formatting link
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> also
>> >>>>>formatting link
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> The Comfort was rapidly retasked to accept covid patient but DeBlasio
>> >>>> and crew couldn't figure out what to do with it, or the Javits
>> >>>> Convention Center which was outfitted at considerable expense. The
>> >>>> Times, of course, preferred to blame Trump rather than the ineffectual
>> >>>> city and state leadership.
>> >>>>
>> >>>
>> >>> DeBlasio should have nothing to do with it operationally unless he is a
>> >>> doctor. Given that it did not work well in other disaster locations you
>> >>> have to wonder who is missing the boat. Wrong tool? Politicians?
>> >> Neither Cuomo or de Blasio are doctors but that doesn't stop them from
>> >> prescribing lock downs. Cuomo bitched about the lack of Federal aid and
>> >> the Comfort deployed from Norfolk on 28 March, docking in New York on 30
>> >> March.
>> >
>> > That's very misleading. That's how long it took the ship to travel from VA to NYC,
>> > once it departed. It took weeks before that to get it manned and ready. >> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >> On 21 April Cuomo said it was no longer needed.
>> >
>> > Yes, because the emergency measures to flatten the curve worked, stupid.
>> > You know, those measures like banning sports events, large gatherings, social
>> > distancing, wearing masks, limiting unnecessary contact. Unfortunately most
>> > of the rest of the country, red states with Trumptard governors, didn't use that
>> > experience to save lives, so now we have a national crisis. >> >
>> > No one could have predicted where the curve would flatten two months earlier,
>> > when the decision was made to deploy the two ships, or even a month earlier,
>> > when they arrived. Some of us go by the method that it's far better to be prepared
>> > and not need it, then to have thousands dying in the streets with no beds. >> >
>> Had that virus been the one much more quickly infecting people some
>> places now, those facilities might have filled up too.
>>
>> At the current immunization rate, we should have this thing under
>> control in ten years.
>
>No worries, Trump is doing a fantastic job! He hit the promised 20 mil number
>by year end. Oh wait, that was 20 mil infections that was hit, not the promised
>20 mil vaccinations. Less than 3 mil were vaccinated.
>
>I saw General Warp Speed explaining the problem. There were two holidays and
>some bad weather. Apparently the general was unaware of Xmas and New Years
>when he was making his prediction of 20 mil. Bad weather, yes, there were a
>couple of typical storms, but nothing that I saw that caused a major disruption
>in flights, etc.
>
>Mitt Romney put forth yesterday what I said here a week ago. The federal govt
>has failed again. They should have had this all thought out from end point to
>end point. They should have planned for what it would take to do this massive
>program, including getting the proper resources in place. They could have done
>mock runs months ago, to identify what works best, what doesn't work, how many
>people a typical facility can process in an hour, etc. Romney also pointed out
>that to rely on CVS and Riteaid is stupid, because they don't have extra staff
>capable of dealing with large numbers. He also had another
>excellent idea of what should have been done, which is to have sought out
>anyone and everyone who could help administer the vaccine, eg retired nurses,
>doctors, med students, people with military medical experience, etc. Instead
>Trump just did what he always does, punt it down, not my job, while trying
>to take the credit. Trump had nine months and again has failed. >
You can't give vaccinations without the vaccine. The companies are going as fast as they can. I also contend CVS, Walmart, Walgreens and Rite Aide are far better positioned to do this than the government because they have thousands of locations across the country with pharmacists on site legally allowed to give vaccinations and a distribution network in place to get the vaccines out there. The major problem with the moderna vaccine is the storage requirement.
There is no infrastructure in place at all at the government level that is even close. I compare it to hurricane relief. It took FEMA over a week to get here after Charley, Wilma and Irma but Walmart and Publix were open the next day and stocked with the things we needed. They had trucks ready to roll from warehouses that are a few hours away.