Kulish

In the Beginning In 2006, HHS established the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to develop medical responses in case of chemical, biological, nuclear, and pandemic disasters. A need for 70,000 machines to moderate an influenza pandemic was planned. A panel of experts designed a new generation of mobile, easy-to-use ventilators. Proposals were requested from companies that were interested in designing and building the ventilators for mass development by 2010 or 2011. Funds were requested by HHS in 2008. Money was budgeted, federal contract was signed and work got underway. Then a multibillion-dollar maker of medical devices bought the company contracted to supply ventilators. The project ultimately produced zero ventilators. This failure delayed the development of an affordable ventilator by at least half a decade, depriving hospitals, states and the federal government of the ability to build inventory. The federal government started over with another company in 2014. Their ventilator was approved only last year and none have been delivered. Source: Kulish, Nicholas, Sarah Kliff, and Jessica Silver-Greenberg. “The U.S. Tried to Build a New Fleet of Ventilators. The Mission Failed.” The New York Times, March 29, 2020. Source:			The United States, Brazil and Russia have the world’s highest number of coronavirus cases and their economies are taking devastating blows. Their leaders -- Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro and Vladimir Putin -- initially downplayed the risks, even as the virus overwhelmed other nations. Now they are scrambling as the virus continues to spread and kill, exposing their weaknesses. Trump has placed blame on China, touted unproven drugs and pressured governors to reopen states. Putin has pulled PR stunts to project the image of a leader in control, like visiting a newly built hospital in a yellow hazmat suit. But Russia’s spiraling infection numbers show the virus has eluded his grasp. Bolsonaro's repeated claims that the virus is "a little flu" that poses little threat is falling flat, as cases rise by as many as 20,000 a day. The consequences have proved deadly. If the US had started social distancing just a week earlier, it could have prevented the loss of at least 36,000 lives, say researchers at Columbia University.
In the Middle In 2017, pandemics models improvement was stopped by Homeland Security. Began in 2005, they were designed to guide policymakers toward areas that would need immediate attention. A detailed pandemic response was prepared for transportation systems, hospitals... What would happen if 40 percent were sick and couldn't work. More specifically, it addressed 34 “key questions” and 21 “key decisions” needed as soon as a “credible threat” developed. Think "early-to-mid January, as it [the virus] raged in China and when the first U.S. case was detected on Jan. 20 Trump’s homeland security adviser Tom Bossert had expressed enthusiasm for the playbook's potential as part a broader pandemic strategy. But, his global health security team was eliminated and he resigned 4/10/18, the day after John R. Bolton became the new National Security Advisor Sources: NSC’s 2016 pandemic playbook Ignored Politico, March 24, 2020. politico pod cast politico.com/news/2020/03/24/dhspandemic- coronavirus-146884.			The END May Not be Pretty Is NYC Undercounting Deaths Source: Covid-19 Deaths: How Much Are They Understated? Suggestions Welcome antonw@ix.netcom.com
Pandemic history: Denial from leaders, prioritizing money Deadly pandemics usually feature denial from leaders, often prioritizing money, historians say A century ago, the Spanish flu epidemic's second wave was far deadlier, in part because authorities allowed mass gatherings from Philadelphia to San Francisco," In the U.S., the first wave hasn't yet crested.			"The 1892 cholera outbreak in Hamburg, Germany, which killed about 10,000 of the port city's 800,000 residents." "The German city-state was run by merchant families who put trade and economy above residents' welfare. ... Hamburg's leaders claimed cholera was spread by an invisible vapor no government could hope to prevent. But in August 1892, the excrement of a Russian migrant ill with cholera ended up in the Elbe River, which the city drew on for its municipal water. ..." "Hamburg's government waited six days after discovering that people were dying from cholera to tell anyone. By then, thousands were ill. ... A year after the cholera outbreak, Hamburg's fed-up citizenry voted their incompetent businessmen leaders out of office. They replaced the merchants with leaders who belonged to the Social Democrats, a working-class party that prioritized science and health over profit. NPR" Merchants were also blamed in the Great Plague of Marseille, t he last major outbreak of the bubonic plague in Western Europe
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