Trump’s Failure to Mandate Emergency Medical Manufacturing is a Massive Mistake
President Trump can use the DPA right now to give hospitals the protective gear, ventilators and other resources they need. Why won’t he act?
President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act on March 18th, but he has failed to mandate production of ventilators and other health equipment a week later. He also has Federal stockpile of 20,000 ventilators he’s not releasing. Someone at the Federal level has finally has agreed to release some because they seem to understand that the battle is now in our big cities.
President Trump can act TODAY to give front line doctors and nurses the tests, protective gear, ventilators and emergency hospitals they need to fight for our lives here in the US. The has the power to force ventilator manufacturing under the Defense Production Act which he has already activated.
Why is he doing nothing?
We’ve seen this pattern before with President Trump. His ego feeds off being begged to act, especially when his political adversaries are reduced to begging. Today, the nation is pleading with him to mandate the manufacturing of healthcare equipment, ventilators, as allowed for under the Defense Protection Act. He is the one person who can do this. I honestly believe he enjoys refusing to do so. For him, this is payback, and possibly much worse. If he follows his usual pattern, he will at some point finally act, and then he will be “the hero who fixed the problem.”
The rate at which the #coronavirus pandemic spreads, the degree to which our hospitals are overwhelmed in the next ten days, will be worsened by every hour Donald Trump fails to mandate manufacturing under the Defense Production Act, which Trump has already activated.
By not mandating emergency manufacturing for EVERYTHING, for masks, shields, protective gear, ventilators and more Donald Trump is failing to put us on a war footing against the greatest domestic threat we have ever faced. What comes next, will harm every man, woman and child in the world.
New York Governor Cuomo has a clear strategy. Send resources to the big cities to fight the first COVID19 waves there where they will peak first. Then, move those resources to the secondary hot spots which are coming. A mass mobilization of resources to fight #COVID19 as the wave passes through the US.
All of us are already hearing about people in our networks who are sick, dying. Every bit of pressure must be brought to bear on Trump to mandate manufacturing of the full range of needed supplies and equipment on an emergency war footing NOW.
I once feared Donald Trump having his finger on the nuclear button. Now I realize a much greater fear. He activated the DFA, but is FAILING to push the button to mandate production of desperately needed medical supplies/equipment during a pandemic. Trumps failure to use his power under the Defense Production Act to activate emergency manufacturing of equipment we need for the war against Covid-19 is leading to the loss of tens of thousands of additional American lives.
Donald Trump called #COVID19 a hoax, which delayed for long weeks the social distancing and other behavioral changes needed to save lives, but his failure to mandate emergency health equipment manufacturing under the #DPA will go down as his most terrible mistake. The horrors of Puerto Rico will pale by comparison.
The emperor is fiddling as Rome is burning. God help us all.
