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This is a pandemic. Across country and state lines. Any response that is not federal is going to struggle. The buck stops solely at the white house and congre

This is a pandemic. Across country and state lines. Any response that is not federal is going to struggle. The buck stops solely at the white house and congress for failing to see the warning signs and properly respond.

pmorici 7y ago
I think they saw the warning signs. [0] [0] https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/03/burr-unloaded-stocks-before-coronavirus/ https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/03/burr-unloaded-stock...
m0zg 7y ago
Cuomo OTOH has been quite effective at working with the administration to ramp up testing to the highest throughput in the nation, as well as enacting other measures, and getting FEMA involved, while DeBlasio's response was pretty much only to point out that "orange man bad", and dragging his staff around with him to infected areas. As of 2 days ago, he went to the _gym_. If you listen to WH pressers, you will see that federal government wants the governors to do what they can to procure stuff and enact measures for their states, and step in when the governors feel their response will be inadequate. Which is what we're observing in CA and NY as the governors of those states chose to put politics aside for the time being and actually engage. The reason for delegating frontline response to the states is that if the federal government steps in to buy medical supplies for example (which BTW it still does from time to time - they ordered $500M worth of N95 masks yesterday), such a purchase would first soak up available capacity, and then it'd have to be disbursed to the states, instead of going to them directly, adding delay and confusion. FWIW, I have not seen this level of coordinated response to _anything_ and I've been in the US for 20 years now. I did not know some of the things that are being done are even possible. FEMA and Army Corps of Engineers started to step in massively over the past week. Companies are starting to make ventilators. Drugs and testing equipment are approved for use in weeks instead of years. The list goes on.
- bilbo0s 7y ago
  >Cuomo OTOH has been quite effective at working with the administration to ramp up testing to the highest throughput in the nation Let's be honest, Cuomo just went out and outbid everyone to get the materials his people needed. He didn't work with the admin to do a thing, he waved money around in the global marketplace. Not hating on him, that's his job. He's supposed to look out for New Yorkers. But a lot of states out there don't have New York's bottomless checkbook. Nor do they have New York's influence. Easy to look good when you're not really depending on the federal government for testing throughput. Again, guy's done a great job. But he's done it by circumventing the limitations set by the administration not really by living with them like the rest of us have to.
  - pplante 7y ago
    Anything to back up your claim of him out bidding everyone else? I believe right now there are restrictions on price gouging for necessary supplies.
    - acomjean 7y ago
      "Cuomo also urged the federal government to nationalize the effort to acquire protective medical supplies — including masks, gowns and gloves — that are in short supply. He says masks that used to cost 85 cents are now priced at $7 as states are forced to bid against each other for limited supplies." https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/22/818971445/new-york-governor-cuomo-calls-for-army-corps-to-help-build-temporary-hospitals https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/0...
  - m0zg 7y ago
    Now imagine an entity which can literally print money outbid _NY_ and sent a substantial part of that capacity to WA (which initially was the epicenter, but where there were no new cases in the past 24 hours) and CA (which seems to have much less of a problem), as well as to the remaining 47 states where the number of cases is pretty low. Imagine what that'd do to NY and their case load a week from now. I'd like to also remind you that the three states hardest hit by the virus have some of the deepest pocketbooks in the nation. CA and NY have huge economies. WA has two of the richest people in the world who they could "ask" to "share their wealth" as it were.

pmorici 7y ago

I think they saw the warning signs. [0] [0] https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/03/burr-unloaded-stocks-before-coronavirus/ https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/03/burr-unloaded-stock...

m0zg 7y ago

Cuomo OTOH has been quite effective at working with the administration to ramp up testing to the highest throughput in the nation, as well as enacting other measures, and getting FEMA involved, while DeBlasio's response was pretty much only to point out that "orange man bad", and dragging his staff around with him to infected areas. As of 2 days ago, he went to the _gym_. If you listen to WH pressers, you will see that federal government wants the governors to do what they can to procure stuff and enact measures for their states, and step in when the governors feel their response will be inadequate. Which is what we're observing in CA and NY as the governors of those states chose to put politics aside for the time being and actually engage. The reason for delegating frontline response to the states is that if the federal government steps in to buy medical supplies for example (which BTW it still does from time to time - they ordered $500M worth of N95 masks yesterday), such a purchase would first soak up available capacity, and then it'd have to be disbursed to the states, instead of going to them directly, adding delay and confusion. FWIW, I have not seen this level of coordinated response to _anything_ and I've been in the US for 20 years now. I did not know some of the things that are being done are even possible. FEMA and Army Corps of Engineers started to step in massively over the past week. Companies are starting to make ventilators. Drugs and testing equipment are approved for use in weeks instead of years. The list goes on.

bilbo0s 7y ago
>Cuomo OTOH has been quite effective at working with the administration to ramp up testing to the highest throughput in the nation Let's be honest, Cuomo just went out and outbid everyone to get the materials his people needed. He didn't work with the admin to do a thing, he waved money around in the global marketplace. Not hating on him, that's his job. He's supposed to look out for New Yorkers. But a lot of states out there don't have New York's bottomless checkbook. Nor do they have New York's influence. Easy to look good when you're not really depending on the federal government for testing throughput. Again, guy's done a great job. But he's done it by circumventing the limitations set by the administration not really by living with them like the rest of us have to.
- pplante 7y ago
  Anything to back up your claim of him out bidding everyone else? I believe right now there are restrictions on price gouging for necessary supplies.
  - acomjean 7y ago
    "Cuomo also urged the federal government to nationalize the effort to acquire protective medical supplies — including masks, gowns and gloves — that are in short supply. He says masks that used to cost 85 cents are now priced at $7 as states are forced to bid against each other for limited supplies." https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/22/818971445/new-york-governor-cuomo-calls-for-army-corps-to-help-build-temporary-hospitals https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/0...
- m0zg 7y ago
  Now imagine an entity which can literally print money outbid _NY_ and sent a substantial part of that capacity to WA (which initially was the epicenter, but where there were no new cases in the past 24 hours) and CA (which seems to have much less of a problem), as well as to the remaining 47 states where the number of cases is pretty low. Imagine what that'd do to NY and their case load a week from now. I'd like to also remind you that the three states hardest hit by the virus have some of the deepest pocketbooks in the nation. CA and NY have huge economies. WA has two of the richest people in the world who they could "ask" to "share their wealth" as it were.