New York City- a story of how not to handle a crisis and blame everyone else

FEMA guidelines stipulate that states are to be the first line of defense in emergencies and are expected to respond accordingly:

Local governments are the first line of defense against emergencies and disasters and are primarily responsible for managing the response to and recovery from those events. At the local government level, the primary responsibility for protecting citizens belongs to local elected officials such as mayors, city councils, and boards of commissioners. When a local government receives warning that an emergency could be imminent, its first priority is to alert and warn citizens and take whatever actions are needed to minimize damage and protect life and property. If necessary, it may order an evacuation.

When an emergency or disaster does occur, fire and police units, emergency medical personnel, and rescue workers rush to damaged areas to provide aid. After this initial response, the local government must work to ensure public order and security. Vital services such as water, power, communications, transportation, shelter, and medical care must be provided, and debris removal must begin. Public and private utility company crews, along with other emergency teams, must be on the job to restore essential services. The local government coordinates its efforts with voluntary agencies who assist individuals and families in need.

Of course, the Federal government must act in concert when appropriate.

New York City- the current epicenter of COVID 19- proved itself far short of the goal in action and all too successful in the finger pointing exercise- a hapless Governor and a feckless Mayor.

A 2015 Task Force found that New York would be woefully unprepared in terms of ventilators should a Spanish flu type of pandemic strike. Cuomo did not choose to purchase more respirators and instead accepted a triage plan.

That task force came up with rules that will be imposed when ventilators run short. Patients assigned a red code will have the highest access, and other patients will be assigned green, yellow or blue (the worst) depending on a “triage officer’s” decision. In truth, a death officer. Let’s not sugarcoat it. It won’t be up to your own doctor.

Cuomo’s defense was “no else did either.”

“There’s no state in the United States that bought ventilators for the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. The federal government did not buy ventilators for the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Nobody in the world bought ventilators in preparation for a 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.”

That’s true, but then blaming Trump is also wrong. Prior to the current crisis a Johns Hopkins study reported that New York did not have the average per capita number of ventilators available. Cuomo is demanding 30,000 ventilators and as of March 21 New York had 7,000 on hand.

This week the Trump administration shipped out 4000 more ventilators to New York. Other steps have been taken, including using one ventilator for two patients.

Right this very moment Cuomo is explaining why he believes he needs 30,000 ventilators and it is dependent on the worst case scenario. Dr. Deborah Brix, on the White House Corona Virus task force, says that number may not be necessary and is not necessary at the moment. The Huffington Post writes

Birx also said there were “over 1,000 to 2,000” available ventilators in the city, though she did not provide details on how and when hospitals were getting access to them.

As of yesterday, after dismissing Trump’s assertion that New York had many more ventilators than is currently needed, Cuomo had 12,000 ventilators on hand.

Watch Cuomo lie through his teeth here

Both Trump and Cuomo are realistically trying to the best they can, Cuomo could do with less posturing, less accusation and less lying. Trump and Cuomo have a relationship based on conflict with both ups and downs. At the moment Trump is moving heaven and earth for New York.

On the other hand, there is Mayor Feckless DeBlasio. I cannot understand how a quasi-intelligent person could vote for this moron. New York has absolutely failed its citizens miserably.

The clown Mayor of NY on March 2:

The NYC Health Commissioner on Feb. 2:

“The risk to New Yorkers from coronavirus is low and … our preparedness as a city is very high,” Barbot said at a Feb. 2 press conference supporting the Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade and Festival. “There is no reason not to take the subway, not to take a bus, not to go out to your favorite restaurant and certainly not to miss the parade next Sunday [Feb. 9].”

This is the NYC Health Commissioner on Feb. 7

Then within four days DeBlasio began screaming about Trump ignoring New York and he finally ordered some COVID supplies on March 6.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has blamed President Trump for the city’s severe shortage of COVID-19 supplies even though City Hall didn’t secure its first order for emergency protective gear until March 6, The Post has learned.

Officials with the city’s Office of Emergency Management tried to purchase nearly 200,000 n95 masks on Feb. 7, but weeks later they learned the vendors had already run out.

It was not until March 6 and March 10 — over two months after the coronavirus outbreak first hit China — that they finally secured the first emergency procurements of masks and hand sanitizer, according to the city comptroller’s office.

Feb. 10

Lest you still doubt what an idiot DeBlasio is- this from March 17:

De Blasio, a failed 2020 presidential candidate, announced that the city would be shutting down restaurants, bars, and gyms on Monday and urged people not to go to those public spaces to combat potential exposure, but that did not stop him from going to the YMCA that morning for one last workout. A number of people expressed their frustration with the mayor, seeing his actions as an implicit double standard.

And this from Ben Domenech on Twitter

New York City continues to allow the COVID infection to spread. If you examine the lines of infection in the greater New York City region it becomes clear that it is spreading along commuter lines into Connecticut and into Eastern Long Island and is exploding in the city.

It’s all about mass transit.

Neither Cuomo nor DeBlasio has even broached the possibility of doing something with mass transit and that is why the Chinese Wuhan virus continues to rage in the NYC area. There are steps that must be taken to control the virus spread. Donald Trump hinted at the possibility of quarantining the tri-state area and Cuomo went ballistic.

Cuomo, in an interview with CNN, said that preventing people from moving in and out of the tri-state would amount to a federally imposed lockdown, which he believes is illegal.

“A lockdown is what they did in Wuhan, China,” Cuomo said. “We’re not in China, and we’re not in Wuhan. I don’t believe it would be legal. I believe it would be illegal.“

Great, but instead of staying home as recommended, New Yorkers are fleeing the city and smearing infection everywhere they go- Connecticut, Rhode Island and Florida. And that’s not all- they’re having Corona parties:

While most New Yorkers are hunkering in place, others are popping corks and staging parties that defy occupancy and social-distancing edicts.

Lucian Wintrich, a former White House reporter and advertisement hand, is one of them. The 31-year-old contrarian recently hosted a “corona potluck” at his small but chic East Village apartment.

“They can’t diagnose us all,” reads the invite Wintrich sent to a select group for the March 14 gathering. “Don’t wash your hands. … Bring your fav dish!” The tongue-in-cheek advert also included an image of a boy covered in chicken pox and a fork digging into a coronavirus spore.

“The majority of folks I invited, if they got it, would recover fairly quickly and build up an immunity to the present form of COVID19,” he said unapologetically. “It was relatively inspired by the chickenpox parties that were all the rage in the 90s.”

The problem is nothing Cuomo or DeBlasio is doing now is working. They are being entirely reactive and not proactive.

This is what I would do

1. Make everyone wear a mask. There are easily enough once a union admitted it was hoarding 39 million N95 masks coincidentally after AG Bill Barr said he would prosecute hoarders.  If it can’t be N95 masks then any mask will do. Anyone not wearing one should be detained and quarantined. Put police in masks and face shields and allow them to hand the masks out.

2. Expand mass transit services – buses, trains and subways- such that social distancing can be observed. Disinfect them repeatedly. Hand out disinfectant wipes on each one.

Shutting down mass transit is the real answer but it could mortally wound the city. Cuomo might want to stop whining and stop ignoring the fact that New Yorkers are ignoring him.

Unless he simply wants to allow the disease to run its course.

And don’t tell me Trump’s the problem.

DrJohn

DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.

DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.

Except for liberals being foolish.