After Considering $1B for Ventilators, White House Has Second Thoughts

- Facemasks work if worn, fitted, tested and removed properly. Plus, it's not just about the person protecting themselves, but protecting others. The problem is for-profit hospitals and ineffective government (HHS' SNS) failed to prepare, and just-in-time inventory doesn't work during a crisis. It's like telling people to plant trees or recycle to "fight" climate change. There should've been billions of masks and respirators ready and given to anyone and everyone. I happen to have a dozen or so 3M NIOSH N95 respirators because of one of the worst forest fires in decades, but there aren't any hospitals for miles.

- Eye protection, with indirect or no venting, is also essential. Droplets in the eyes is a no-go.

- Hand washing doesn't have much to do with this current outbreak because it's not the primary mode of transmission. This is habits-manipulation health theater. Maybe some people need it, but this comes across as hygiene theater bikeshedding.

- Manipulating people into grossly under-preparing (two weeks? what a joke.) and making unnecessary trips, putting themselves, their families and others in danger is irresponsible. 3-6 months of shelf-stable food that would be eaten anyways is a more sensible number, and reduces risky trips by 90%.

From "the paper of record" that decides what people "should" believe.

"The initial projection, one senior administration official said, was that after three weeks of preparation it could produce an initial run of 20,000 ventilators .... That number then shrank to 7,500 ventilators in the initial run, or maybe 5,000...

"Those issues appeared to come to a head on Wednesday afternoon, when FEMA told the White House that it was premature to make a decision. The $1.5 billion price tag comes to around $18,000 a ventilator. And the overall cost, by comparison, is roughly equal to buying 18 F-35s...."