My friend, I must have sounded like the tinfoil-hat-wearing prepper for the last few months. I was one of the first to sound the alarm about this, but it's hard to make moves when you don't have the funding nor supplies to do anything about it. I know you want to separate the politics from the discussion, however when the analyses about this situation are written, the five-why is going to point to one thing: Trump is a terrible CEO, and he really sunk us when he failed to prepare and then downplayed (mocked, even) the threat.
Hospitals are like colleges in the NCAA. Not everyone has the money of an ND, Texas, or Alabama. My hospital is tiny and poor. I laughed at a recent Becker's article on 5 Washington hospitals who were potentially going to close. They have 45 days cash on hand. You know how much we have? Like, 4. So tell me how we're supposed to stockpile equipment, when I can't even stock Coca Cola products? How do you buy stuff when you're on credit lock?
Our situation is not unique. I don't remember the exact count, but rural hospitals all over the US close on a monthly basis. They can't keep up with the Joneses...es. But even the wealthy systems don't have the capital to keep the amount of items needed for this pandemic. Even if they did, China cut off the supply well before anyone had the opportunity to start purchasing more.
The problem isn't that the hospitals didn't prepare for the end of the world. The problem is that our nation has more than enough help, both internally and from its "leaders," to push us right to that day. I wish your family good fortune in the wars to come. I found out, yesterday, that I am already potentially exposed. At least our hospitals are empty. We're in the calm before the storm.
. Cheap beer and target rich.
