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Comment by jupp0r | Hacker News Reader

I’d be really interested in who the stockpile is meant for if it’s not for people living in states.

There's some truth to the idea that the Feds do need some reserved for things like embassies, warships, FEMA, etc.

The current meme going around local news Facebook comments seems to be that the Feds are just a backup with no direct responsibilities for disaster management, though, and that it's all on the states for being unprepared. Which, well, is bullshit.

Is it? I'm honestly asking. As an American, I understand there's a division of responsibility between the federal state governments for disaster preparedness, but I don't know exactly what that agreement entails (or even if it's clearly written down somewhere). Without a clear understanding of who's responsible for what, it seems easy to point fingers depending on political preference.

If anyone has more knowledge and is willing to share, I'd appreciate it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Emergency_Management_A...

"The agency's primary purpose is to coordinate the response to a disaster that has occurred in the United States and that overwhelms the resources of local and state authorities."

Yes, I agree that the feds should step in at this point (and should have done so long ago). What I'm curious about is the responsibility each state has to, for example, maintain their own stockpile of PPE. What are the resources that have been overwhelmed (and does it vary by state)?

States absolutely have stockpiles, but more for the "there was an earthquake/hurricane/bombing" sort of scenarios where there'd be mutual aid from other states after a few days/weeks and you could readily rebuild the stockpiles in a few weeks by placing some orders with 3M etc.

I don't think any state is going to wind up having had a stockpile sufficient for this sort of prolonged, world-affecting disaster.

The fed govt can print and borrow money at will, which states cannot and which is crucial in large scale disasters like this.

The federal government can comandeer private businesses to produce whatever it wants.

I don’t think states can do this

I don't think the states would _want_ to do this. Gov control of business closer to the local level means you're closer to your constituents.

The entire press conference was stating that the federal stockpile is not a grocery store, but is to be mobile based upon where the federal government feels it is needed, and no state has the right to demand and send a shopping list.

More like some states only, like Florida. The Governor of Florida, if I might point out, had been declining calling for a lockdown/quarantine well into need, but Florida still has a much less sever case than NY, which has been asking for aid for weeks along with other states.

[0] https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/4/3/21206170/us-emergency-st...

I don't know how you look at a metropolitan area like NYC overrun with cases, and decide there isn't a need there. Are they waiting until it hits Montana?

Not a state that can sway Republican, unlike Florida. [0]

[0] https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/4/3/21206170/us-emergency-st...

That's of course a completely sensible stance, but what's the current standing protocol, or it's just what Trump feels at the moment?

So many people blame Trump, when in reality there are 10's of thousands of goverment workers that work tirelessly every day and go unnoticed (good and bad). In regard's to my initial comment, here is a great example of Washington state receiving ventilators from the stock pile, and then sending them back for use elsewhere:

https://nypost.com/2020/04/06/washington-returns-hundreds-of...

FEMA, CDC, or National Guard? I honestly don't have an answer to that, but I would highly doubt Trump is putting them in a golf cart and driving them around...LOL

They are for the states but my favorite theory is a large number don't work[1] and the administration is attempting to save face until they can swindle replacements internationally.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/us/politics/coronavirus-v...

I imagine they might say it is for helping other nations. The reality is it probably really is for the states. The conspiracy theory is probably that it is for the 1% and for those in power.

> I imagine they might say it is for helping other nations.

Given that the administration is halting exports of masks to Canada and Latin America from 3M, I somehow doubt that the reserves are for helping other nations.

But haven't the reserves been built up over many decades? The reasoning behind the reserve probably long predates the current administration.

It's pointless partisan "gotcha" posturing from the press and nothing more. Anyone with half a brain understood Kushner perfectly well: this is the emergency stockpile to prevent hoarding "for the future" by states. Resources are delivered to individual states at a short notice after they tally up how much of the already allocated resources they are already using, to make sure e.g. thousands of ventilators don't sit in some NJ warehouse for days while at the same time CNN is telling everyone there aren't enough of them.

CNN isn't telling people there aren't enough of them. The governor of New York is telling people there aren't enough of them.

It's a lie by omission. The governor of New York has acknowledged several times that they have enough now, but anticipate running out at some point in the future. The gap between what he anticipated from the models last week and the hospitalizations on the ground is ~3x right now. Which is something CNN won't explicitly tell you, but you can easily see it from multiple public sources.

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