Trump Was Right: Cuomo Admits New York Has 'Stockpile' of Ventilators

Trump Vindicated: Cuomo Makes Admission on Stockpiled Medical Supplies

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By Johnathan Jones

Published March 29, 2020 at 8:41am

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo admitted that his state already has thousands of unused ventilators — even as he and the establishment media hammer President Donald Trump over a supposed shortage of the potentially life-saving medical devices in the Empire State.

Speaking as his daily news briefing on Friday, the Democratic governor said his state has the unused ventilators in a “stockpile.”

“Yes they’re in a stockpile because that’s where they’re supposed to be because we don’t need them yet,” Cuomo said, according to the New York Post. “We need them for the apex. The apex isn’t here so we’re gathering them in the stockpile so when we need them they will be there.”

Cuomo has insisted that New York might need up to 40,000 ventilators, an estimate which Trump has pushed back on.

The president told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday he believed government officials in New York are overestimating how many ventilators the state will need to treat patients diagnosed with the coronavirus.

“I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You go into major hospitals sometimes, they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’” he said.

The subject of ventilators turned political Friday, when multiple establishment media outlets accused Trump of downplaying the need for the devices — which are a commodity for hospitals across the country, and not just in New York.

Liberal publication Salon wrote that the president “dismissed pleas for thousands of life-saving ventilators from Democratic governors in states hit hard by the new coronavirus.”

CNN, meanwhile, included Trump’s skepticism that his home state will need 40,000 ventilators as one of its “30 most outrageous lines from Donald Trump’s interview with Sean Hannity.”

“No big deal! Just the President of the United States suggesting that the governor of New York is lying about the number of ventilators he needs to help keep people alive! What proof did Trump offer to back up this claim? Um, none,” CNN’s Chris Cillizza wrote.

But as Cuomo and other civic leaders join the media in calling for more of the devices, Trump pointed out that New York already has thousands of them in storage.

“Thousand of Federal Government (delivered) Ventilators found in New York storage. N.Y. must distribute NOW!” Trump tweeted Friday.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1243566007605755904

Cuomo responded by telling CNN that Trump is “grossly uninformed” on the issue, before revealing New York has indeed been stockpiling ventilators.

“The point is, we have ventilators in a stockpile and we didn’t send them to the hospital yet. Of course we didn’t — that’s the whole point. The hospitals don’t need them yet. The hospitals aren’t at their apex,” Cuomo said.

“The hospitals have enough ventilators today, but their numbers are going up. We’re planning for an apex, a high point, in about 21 days — that’s when we need the 30,000 ventilators, not today. Right now we’re putting them in a stockpile,” he added.

Cuomo also told “NBC Nightly News” host Lester Holt on Friday that he is basing his projections on data from “worldwide health experts.”

“I hope no one needs a ventilator,” he said. “But, I don’t operate on what I hope or what I would like to see or what my expectation is. I operate on the data and on the numbers and on the science.

“And every projection I have, from multiple sources, and these are worldwide health experts, say that we have to be prepared for an apex of 140,000 hospital beds and 40,000 ICU beds with ventilators.”

Melissa DeRosa, one of Cuomo’s top aides, admitted New York already has thousands of ventilators, but repeated Cuomo’s projection that the state will need tens of thousands more.

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Poster Comment:

Whatcha gonna do when they come for you.