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Comment by chiefalchemist | Hacker News Reader

Perhaps. But we had a pandemic during the Obama/Biden admin, but no stockpile of appropriate PPE, masks, etc. This was, we were told, the pro-science administration.

Pandemics are such a common trope that Hollywood has made multiple (bad) movies revolving around them. Yet it appears we were unprepared for the basics.

What Fauci said or why isn't important. The question we should be asking is: Why were in that position to begin with? We were warned - time and again - and each time that warning was ignored.

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This is wrong. The Obama administration did quite a bit to prevent future pandemics and the Trump administration dismantled it all pretty much immediately. Three things come to mind: the pandemic playbook, the pandemic response office, and the public health observers in China that were all recalled under Trump.

I love the reaction you get when you tell people there was literally something created & called “Pandemic Playbook” which was devised because they were expecting a pandemic in the next decade or two.

& what happened to the Pandemic Playbook created by the 44th presidential administration? It was completely discarded by the 45th presidential administration.

What proceeded to happen during the 45th presidential administration? A somewhat predicted pandemic. It’s too bad they didn’t have a playbook that told them step by step how to properly handle it…

And I love when ppl are so sucked into a particular narrative that they ignore the question being asked:

Where were the stockpiles of appropriate equipment? Or did the playbook say such things would fall out of the sky, like manna from heaven?

Fact: The 45th didn't discard them. In fact, the gov bought masks from Facebook and (I think) Google who did have a stockpile (but evidently not for pandemic purposes).

You're loving the playbook but missing the fact that some basic and necessary execution never happened.

…sigh

Feel free to use the search engine of your choice to search “US PPE Stockpile” & read any of the multiple credible articles that come up as the first results of the search. As it was known nearly immediately after COVID started, the stockpiles were mostly depleted - and what wasn’t depleted was mostly expired. This is why you saw pictures and videos of nurses demonstrating their supplied smocks disintegrating into dust as they put them on.

The 45th administration had the responsibility to refresh the stockpiles, and they purposely chose not to. If you’re unaware of this, your snark is a bit funny as you appear to be the one suckered.

Secondly: As for what the government bought after they remembered the stockpile is screwed, also for the small bit of it that was still useable.

“The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use,” - Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor, 45th Admin

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2020/4/3/21207140/jared-kus...

So much to the point that at least one state had to buy shipments of PPE in secrecy & then guard the distribution of said shipments with their National Guard. Everything not done in secrecy or guarded was being “appropriated” by the Feds, for reasons not hard to imagine given the statement of the aforementioned advisor.

There’s a lot more to it, but I digress.

Somebody here is indeed a sucker - but I do not believe it is I.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/apr/08/donald-tru...

I won't dispute Trump exaggerated. That's a given.

On the other hand, all I can find are articles on the stockpile being depleted and that even if full there were numerous warning about full not being enough.

So again, a simple question: Why? And why isn't anyone willing to ask why?

We knew this was coming. We even got a warning. And still not even close. But no accountability??

So we had a stockpile that wasn't a stockpile, that wasn't effective? That ran out in no time at all? That's some great spin. Thanks.

I’ll leave anybody who comes across this discourse a simple

Google “Trump administration stockpile budget cuts”

and stop attempting to discuss in good faith with you, who apparently really wants to be right on the internet when they’re completely wrong.

Again, fair. But it still doesn't answer the question:

We were clearly - and across multiple administrations - under prepared...why? And why is no one (read: media) seriously asking why?

That is, again for example, even an undepleted stockpile wasn't going to be enough.

You're confused. Where did I mention "pandemic playbook"? It's a _very_ simple question:

Dear Uncle Sam - Where were the stockpiles of appropriate supplies?

That's it. We can move on to other discussions but let's start with the basics first.

> We were warned - time and again - and each time that warning was ignored.

And at least in the US, their are 1000s of people receiving good money to take that warning seriously. And they still failed.

I heard a story about California preparing for the case of a pandemic in reaction to SARS many years ago (Schwarzenegger in 2006) stockpiling medical gear and building mobile hospitals that could be quickly moved to hotspots as disaster relief. The next governor (Brown in 2011) then cut funding to retain and renew it in an attempt to slim down the states budget.

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