These days, there is a lot to be worried about with the number of cases of the coronavirus Covid-19 rising and the number of deaths increasing. It seems like the news is all bad.
Millions of people are filing for unemployment, and no one knows how long “shelter-in-place” policies will last. Governors are demanding ventilators and hospitals.
Through all the noise, President Trump has been talking about how private industry is stepping up to help with the effort to get medical supplies to the places that need them most – like New York City and Los Angeles. Americans should be happy about how the president is handling this aspect of the crisis.
Early on in the crisis, Americans became painfully aware that the majority of our medical supplies were being imported from China, India and other countries, leaving us hanging when those supply chains were interrupted by the spreading coronavirus. We don’t have personal protective equipment for medical personnel. We don’t have enough ventilators if the pandemic continues to escalate.
Of course, the projected models of how many people would be affected were based on a worst-case scenario by Neil Ferguson, an Imperial College London professor. His oft-cited study projected 500,000 dead in the UK and over 2 million in the US if no precautions were taken.
His model with lockdowns and social distancing in place predicts 20,000 deaths in the UK rather than 500,000. (Dr. Ferguson has now tested positive for the virus as has the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince Charles.)
President invokes Defense Production Act with GM
US companies are stepping up without the President having to invoke the Defense Production act. The president has said he is reluctant to force companies into production, though, as of today, he is using the act to force GM to retool to make ventilators.
As usual with “this” General Motors, things just never seem to work out. They said they were going to give us 40,000 much needed Ventilators, “very quickly”. Now they are saying it will only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar. Always a mess with Mary B. Invoke “P”.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020
General Motors MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!! FORD, GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!!!! @GeneralMotors @Ford
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020
American companies produce needed supplies
Some of the many companies that are doing their part to help fight the coronavirus are Ford, General Electric, 3M, CVS, Medtronic, Honeywell, and My Pillow, to name a few.
Some distilleries including Bacardi and Fall Rivers have turned to producing hand sanitizer.
Elizabeth Wright Director of Health and Science Policy at Citizens Against Government Waste pointed out something important about the proper use of the Defense Production Act:
“FEMA has said it does not need the president to enforce the Defense Production Act to secure medical equipment since private industry is escalating production to meet demand. This is not only a tribute to capitalism and patriotism, it is a rebuke to the “restructuring” of the country that House Democrats’ envision as a way to exert greater control over American industry and personal freedoms.
Sean Hannity featured American companies doing their part in a segment on his show recently.
Watch:
