We had a couple of weeks of respite, with declining death if not infection rates. That seems to be over now.
Have we used our time wisely? Is the US now in better shape for PPE and ventilators?
In the US? Of course we didn’t use our time wisely and build up stockpiles. There are bunches of articles from July about the on-going ppe shortages.
I think w.r.t. ventilators, doctors have become better in devising non-ventilator treatments, as well as using them better when they do need to use one. Basically fewer patients are needing them, so we aren’t hearing about shortages like we did a few months ago.
Thank you, Bump.
There was never a ventilator shortage, just a fear of one. (granted it’s from April)
Blockquote
In the state that (as of today) has one-third of the country’s confirmed COVID-19 cases, New York governor Andrew Cuomo sounded the alarm for ventilators repeatedly. On March 27, he acknowledged “I don’t have a crystal ball” but said his state desperately needed 30,000 ventilators, maybe 40,000, but had only 12,000. When President Trump noted that Cuomo’s state had thousands of unused ventilators it hadn’t even placed yet, Cuomo admitted this was true but said he still needed more: “Yes, they’re in a stockpile because that’s where they’re supposed to be because we don’t need them yet. We need them for the apex,” Cuomo said at the time. On April 2, Cuomo predicted the state would run out of ventilators in six days “at the current burn rate.” But on April 6, Cuomo noted, “We’re ok, and we have some in reserve.”
and
Blockquote
However, New Jersey, with 8,011 total hospitalizations as of April 16, also has more ventilators than it is currently using and also may have passed its apex; as of April 16, the fewest New Jerseyans were on ventilators since April 8. So far, the peak was April 14, when 1705 patients were on ventilators. Yet before Cuomo’s announcement, New Jersey reported that 46 percent of its ventilators were still available.
Masks, gowns, gloves I haven’t a clue on.
July 8: Grave Shortages of Protective Gear Flare Again as Covid Cases Surge
July 13: American Healthcare Workers are Scrambling for PPE. Again.
July 14: Delayed use of Defense Production Act leads to ongoing shortages of protective gear
July 16: Why We May Run into PPE Shortages Again
July 22: FEMA head says coronavirus hot spots may face PPE shortages, U.S. isn’t ‘out of the woods’
Another thing that concerns me is that I’ve only seen a couple of articles like this one that note that opening schools is going to increase the demand on PPE significantly too.
So a scan of the headlines tells me that there may be a shortage. Ok.
Scan better. Or, you know, read the articles. 3 say there are shortages. 2 say there will continue to be shortages. .
Nope. Two do. Scrambling is colorful but not equivalent to shortage. Don’t impugn my scanning abilities, novice.
Scrambling because of shortages.