US Coronavirus Update: Donald Trump Continues To Downplay Extreme Ventilator Shortage

The United States already surpassed Italy who previously had the most coronavirus cases in the world. The country has 336,851 cases now with 9,620 deaths as of Apr. 6. The number is more than double of Italy’s current record and some state government officials are already asking for ventilators as hospitals in their regions are struggling to cope with the influx of COVID-19 patients.

Despite the calls of governors particularly in hard-hit states like New York, Michigan and Louisiana, President Donald Trump doesn’t think that there is a shortage in ventilators and other equipment like protective gear for the doctors, nurses and other frontliners. The governors said that due to the lack of life-saving equipment, it will not be long when doctors will be forced to make the hard decisions about who will get ventilators and who will not.

Medical professionals fear that it will only get worst in the next days as the peak of the pandemic hits. By then, they are predicting that the machines have run out and this is what they fear.

Gov. John Bel Edwards of Lousiana said that the ventilators they acquired from the national stockpile will all be on use by April 6 and they need thousand of units more. As for Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, he stated that they need around 30,000 machines and they will no more units to use by next week.

Now, According to USA Today, although the POTUS did not mention a specific governor during his press briefing last Saturday at the White House, it is obvious who his message was directed to. The three governors have been vocal about the important equipment that they need so this was obvious already.

In any case, Trump denied that there is a shortage of ventilators in some states. He also downplayed the warnings of the governors that they are already in dire need for the machines that provide mechanical ventilation to help patients breathe.

“Shortages have lead to inflated requests. We have some states and areas that are just asking for far more than they need,” the president said. "And then the media meets with the governor and they say, 'Oh, you got more. Well, it's not enough. The president should have sent more' - that's politics.”

He added, “We want to be ready for when the brunt of it comes – we want to be ready to hit the area that needs it. We don’t want to have spent it in an area that doesn’t need it.”

Meanwhile, it was reported that Trump did not order ventilators and N95 masks until the pandemic has gotten worst. Officials voiced out that they just wasted two months to prepare for the crisis so the situation today is bad.

Trump recently declared that the U.S. will make 100,000 ventilators in 100 days and 11 companies including General Motors and Ford have been contracted to produce the machine quickly. In a press release published by the House Oversight Committee this week, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials stated that most of the 100,000 ventilators that the POTUS promised to have by June will not be available until the end of the month - the earliest time that some units are completed. Finally, the COVID-19 crisis in the U.S. is expected to peak by mid-April and by then, at least 32,000 ventilators are needed.