[ April 24, 2024 ]
No bailout for this epic failure. No bailout for this epic failure. Oh, and he extended the lockdown with no end date.
Coronavirus : Amid New York’s unused hospital beds and ventilators, critics point to mass waste and mismanagement
By Hollie McKay | Fox News May 1, 2020:
Cuomo remains resistant to reopening New York, considers extending restrictions in some parts of the state
Story continues below advertisementWhile New York has weathered the brunt of coronavirus infections and deaths, the state’s apparent hoarding of medical supplies, and the millions spent on equipment that never arrived, as well as unused hospitals and beds, have some questioning what went wrong.
Early to mid-March projections of the spread of COVID-19 had the state scrambling to bolster its hospital bed capacity to more than double its 53,000 maximum status-quo. Subsequently, hospitals statewide were ordered to discharge patients to free up beds, and forced to add new ones as non-emergency procedures were canceled.
A homeless person takes shelter in a subway train AT Hudson Yards, New York City during a rainy afternoon amid COVID-19 pandemic on April 3, 2020. (Photo by John Nacion/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In addition to a bevy of state orders, Gov. Andrew Cuomo made desperate overtures to the federal government to step in. In response, and in record time, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers scrambled to erect at least four field hospitals, and the Navy deployed its USNS Comfort hospital ship to Manhattan.
However, those efforts – and the many millions of dollars spent on them – have largely been deemed a waste, even as New York has battled a soaring a death toll and is maintaining stay-at-home orders. So what happened?
“[The models] have been extremely inaccurate,” Dr. David Samadi, a New York-based surgeon, told Fox News. “These models gave a horrifying prediction that suggested COVID-19 could kill anywhere from 200,000 to 1.7 million Americans. Currently, it looks to be more like 60,000 to 65,000 deaths. While any American life lost to this virus is a shame, the death and infection rate is looking not quite so bleak as it was in the beginning.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is in the process of shuttering the much-touted, 2,500-bed Javits Center – having treated only around 1,000 patients over the course of more than a month – The Associated Press reported.
On Thursday, the heralded Navy ship – which was equipped with 1,000 beds and intended to take the burden off other hospitals and treat non-coronavirus patients before finally taking on a handful of those with the infection – sailed away, barely used.
The three additional field hospitals Albany spent many millions on erecting in late March are yet to close, despite treating few, and are standing idle in case there is a second wave of the disease.
The process has led to frustration for hospital officials tasked with hurriedly boosting bed counts and equipping these new facilities, yet have watched as city hospitals endured overcrowding of coronavirus patients while their own ready-to-go medical centers have sat mostly empty, at the taxpayer’s expense.
For one, construction firms earned $136 million to quickly erect the Stony Brook field hospital – paid for from the Army Corps of Engineers budget. The original contract with Manhattan-based Turner Construction Co., as noted by Newsday, was initially for an amount not to exceed $101 million – yet “the number was increased on April 8 to an amount not to exceed $136 million once it became clear that more money was needed,” even with the lack of patients. Still, it has hardly been used, officials said.
In this March 30, 2020 file photo, the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort is escorted up the Hudson River on its way to New York City. On Tuesday, April 21, 2020, while expressing confidence that stresses on New York City’s hospital system are easing, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that the ship deployed to New York City to help fight the coronavirus outbreak is no longer needed.In this March 30, 2020 file photo, the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort is escorted up the Hudson River on its way to New York City. On Tuesday, April 21, 2020, while expressing confidence that stresses on New York City’s hospital system are easing, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that the ship deployed to New York City to help fight the coronavirus outbreak is no longer needed. (AP)
Another $116.5 million was spent to spring to life a field facility on the Old Westbury campus, complete with top-notch features including hospital-grade welded linoleum floors, multiple layers of insulation, electricity, telephone infrastructure, plumbing, Wi-Fi, showers, bathrooms, and staff common areas.
Meanwhile, nursing home managers have been left bewildered as to why the empty facilities were not made available for ill and suspect coronavirus patients, who were not able to be aptly isolated from others deemed vulnerable to severe infection or death.
In April, coronavirus patients at a Brooklyn nursing home were denied admission to both of the medical facilities established in New York to handle victims of the pandemic even though beds were mostly empty. The snub, as highlighted by the New York Post, came weeks after New York health officials were warned by the nursing home operator – where 55 people have died – that there was a grave concern, and requesting patients be transferred to the temporary facilities.
New York nursing homes have accounted for 13 percent of the state’s coronavirus death toll, according to the state’s health department figures.
Critics have also underscored that much of the mismanagement and failure to properly utilize the field hospitals came down to poor logistics, with mandates making it challenging and time-consuming for burdened hospitals to transfer patients. In the case of the Javits Center, a stringent 25-point checklist meant even that few coronavirus patients could be sent there, as not every box could be marked.
A further $100 million, as per federal monitoring figures, was allocated for additional field hospitals. But those plans have now been scrapped. Yet hundreds of millions of dollars later, and the doomsday predictions have fallen short, and hospitalizations statewide have started dropping.
“I believe the main reason for numerous hospitals having far lower hospitalized patient counts with the virus was due to the fact the majority of people who contracted the infection, did not require hospitalization,” Samadi said. “Either they were asymptomatic, or their symptoms were not life-threatening and could be carefully managed quarantined at home.”
Workers move bodies to a refrigerated truck from the Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Wednesday, April 29, 2020.Workers move bodies to a refrigerated truck from the Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Wednesday, April 29, 2020. (AP)
But ironically, the state’s health care industry is fearing a financial collapse as a result of the pandemic. Despite all the efforts and finances directed to the medical sector, thousands of health care workers have been rendered jobless, and facilities are fearing financial ruin. Red tape and heavy-handed restrictions, analysts note, have led to a crisis within a crisis — the inability to perform other medical procedures that would have at least in the short term avoided budget deficiencies and kept many health care professionals employed.
“Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, American’s health care system was already coded blue. What was driving it into the ground was price failures, administrative waste, and in some cases, inappropriate care,” Samadi surmised. “While there were many nurses, doctors, and other supportive medical personnel who have been able to work taking care of patients with coronavirus, many other health care workers were furloughed depending on their positions.”
RICK SCOTT HITS BACK AT ANDREW CUOMO FOR SAYING NY BAILS OUT FLORIDA
In this March 24, 2020, file photo, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference at the Jacob Javits Center in New York.In this March 24, 2020, file photo, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference at the Jacob Javits Center in New York. (AP)
Furthermore, the desperate call for ventilators in March – amid projections that New York was about to run out and tens of thousands would die – sparked a flurry of donations from far and wide. President Trump additionally ordered car manufacturing companies like General Motors and Ford to start manufacturing parts to fill the feared void, and Cuomo set about purchasing as many as possible.
But from the lens of New York Assemblyman Mike LiPetri, a Republican, this only adds to the existing “$6 billion deficit Cuomo administration,” given that much of the ventilator stockpile has, at least to date, not been needed.
“Money is always wasted. We went to Albany and voted on a state budget in the middle of the night that was filled with political pet projects and misguided priorities,” LiPetri continued. “Nowhere did it include hazard pay for those on the front lines or small business relief for those on the verge of closing their doors forever.”
He also highlighted it was an excess expenditure that could have been avoided.
A New York-tailored pandemic plan was issued in 2006, cautioning that the city would be short some 9,500 ventilators in the case of a public health crisis. The city only had a few hundred in its arsenal. In the face of the apprehension, only 500 more ventilators were collected, plans to bolster a larger stockpile fell victim to budget cuts. That reserve also was scrapped or sold some five years ago, ProPublica pointed out, as they had broken down and were not adequately maintained for use.
Now, with a bulging ventilator stack, Cuomo has directed the National Guard to remove the unused, life-saving machines from medical facilities and reallocate or return them to other states.
New York also spent $69 million on ventilators that never arrived, according to reports this week. Albany is said to have heeded a Twitter message from a Silicon Valley electrical engineer and purchased 1,450 ventilators — at three times the retail price. Only the devices are yet to arrive, and Cuomo stated Friday that they are attempting to get their money back.
According to Alexandra Abrams, communications director at Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) as part of the Dynamic Ventilator Reserve initiative, states with a surplus can send ventilators to other parts of the country that need them, helping to ensure everyone who needs a ventilator can get one. At the national level, she stressed, the U.S. now has enough ventilators to help supply other countries.
“I said from the beginning that no American who needs a ventilator would be denied a ventilator, and we have kept that promise all over the United States,” Trump said on April 21, a statement that has apparently turned out to be accurate, as highlighted by PolitiFact.
Abrams concurred that New York has not lacked the resources Cuomo feared it would.
“The system bent but didn’t break. While there remains a need for more testing, it does not appear that New York lacked the resources it needed,” she explained. “While the initial request for ventilators was tens of thousands, that amount was never needed.”
Nonetheless, New York overall has been incredibly hard hit by the virus — clocking in some 305,000 confirmed cases and claiming the lives of more than 23,500 people. The state’s infection numbers account for almost 30 percent of the national total and 38 percent of all U.S. deaths.
But the overblow and waste has many analysts and public officials scratching their heads.
“The leadership in NYC has moved slowly, offering inconsistent messages and didn’t let the scientists’ voices emerge as leaders,” conjectured Dr. Attila Hertelendy, a professor in emergency and disaster management at Georgetown University. “Politicians’ voices dominated.”
On the flip side, others contend that unused resources are a good problem to have – irrespective of the billions that could have been directed elsewhere.
“Predicting the future in any field of endeavor is a difficult enterprise. This is certainly true in forecasting a pandemic involving a novel –or new – virus about which not a lot is known,” said Peter Brookes, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation. “While models may be imperfect in predicting exact outcomes, they can be useful to decision-makers in trying to see into the future to develop plans and policies for dealing with challenging public policy problems.”
Yet the divergence between the state’s worst-case scenario wants and the realistic needs have not gone unnoticed by the president either.
“We built you thousands of hospital beds that you didn’t need or use,” Trump tweeted to Cuomo on April 17.
Last week, at one of his daily press briefings, Gov. Cuomo appeared to acknowledge some of the mess up and not taking earlier action that would have simmered the March frenzy. But the following day, he turned his attention to pointing fingers at the likes of the World Health Organization (WHO) and federal bodies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for not raising the red flags earlier, insisting that “governors don’t do global pandemics.”
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The Truth Must be Told
Your contribution supports independent journalism
Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more.
Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible.
Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too.
Please contribute here.
or
Make a monthly commitment to support The Geller Report – choose the option that suits you best.
Quick note: We cannot do this without your support. Fact. Our work is made possible by you and only you. We receive no grants, government handouts, or major funding.Tech giants are shutting us down. You know this. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Adsense, Pinterest permanently banned us. Facebook, Google search et al have shadow-banned, suspended and deleted us from your news feeds. They are disappearing us. But we are here.
Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here— it’s free and it’s essential NOW when informed decision making and opinion is essential to America's survival. Share our posts on your social channels and with your email contacts. Fight the great fight.
Follow Pamela Geller on Gettr. I am there. click here.
Follow Pamela Geller on Trump's social media platform, Truth Social. It's open and free.
Remember, YOU make the work possible. If you can, please contribute to Geller Report.
Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spammy or unhelpful, click the - symbol under the comment to let us know. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
If you would like to join the conversation, but don't have an account, you can sign up for one right here.
If you are having problems leaving a comment, it's likely because you are using an ad blocker, something that break ads, of course, but also breaks the comments section of our site. If you are using an ad blocker, and would like to share your thoughts, please disable your ad blocker. We look forward to seeing your comments below.
44 Comments
3 years ago
We know what a Democrat administration would have done during Corona.
Keep the borders open to China and Europe like “Fingers” Biden said. and then do as Cuomo does. it would have been the Black Death
3 years ago
Reply to
TD
TD: “We know what a Democrat administration would have done during Corona.” Yeah, we saw that in the crazy H1N1 swine flu 2009 ‘pandemic’. It was a horrible, planned mess by Obama, the CDC, and the WHO. Dr. Fauci ran around crying about imminent catastrophes that never came. When infections were too meager, US authorities designated ALL flu cases of any type as H1N1 (!) This is called a ‘presumptive diagnosis’, with no blood test, nothing, Just, ‘He has the flu, so we will write ‘H1N1’ on the forms. Dumb, eh?
Then, not enough people were dying, so the WHO literally re-wrote the definition of pandemic, to exclude mortality. High fatality rates were no longer necessary to designate it as a pandemic (!) To this day, pimples [acne] are technically a pandemic by the new definition, because every country has people with pimples (!) Finally, US flu mortalities were below normal for that year, so Obama, the CDC, and the WHO just changed the subject: Ebola!
“Déjà Vu: Why the WHO Faked the H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic in 2009”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/who-faked-pandemic/5708013
3 years ago
Reply to
DemocracyRules
In a way this reminds me of hurricane season when I lived in the Houston area. The place is overdue for a direct hit from a powerful hurricane, so the meteorologists who spent their lives studying hurricanes go all out to warn of the potential nightmare when it looks like things are lining up right to make one. On one hand, they could save a lot of lives, and on the other hand they could become the boy who cried wolf. The wolf is real about the time everyone is sick of hearing about it.
3 years ago
Reply to
spfoam1
Yes, hurricane warnings and counter measures are good models for epidemics. Weather forecasters know in advance that they will be blamed, no matter what. If they evacuate too early, or too much, they are blamed. If they do too little too late, they are blamed. And before the winds hit, they lie awake at night in a cold sweat. People will die, no matter what.
Epidemiology is not nearly as sophisticated as meteorology, and once the politicos get involved, the smears, grandstanding, and lying starts.
3 years ago
Reply to
TD
It’s interesting to note that the medical supply stockpiles and system in place to deal with something as inevitable as a contagious disease were set up to fail miserably…by Democrats. Remember, Hillary was supposed to be in the WH, so this was a stage set for Hillary and the bug was ready to match the stage. IMO, the bug was repurposed to put her in the WH.
3 years ago
Mass waste and mismanagement are inevitable in wartime. Of course it can be controlled, and Cuomo isn’t doing that. The genocide in retirement and nursing homes should lead to homicide charges against Cuomo and de Blasio. They knew what they were doing, and long after alarm bells rang, they have kept doing it.
3 years ago
Reply to
DemocracyRules
DeBlazio LOVES it! He is a control freak. Cuomo is another idiot. They don’t care.
3 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Yeah that’s why they need to do time. That will smarten them up. And a wrongful death lawsuit would cost the State and City billions. Many people died unnecessarily.
3 years ago
This article is burying the lead. The death rate in NYC now exceeds 12%. That’s over double the national average. This is a scathing indictment of the grossly inadequate NYC hospital system particularly the public-run facilities.
Governor Cuomo, Mayor De Blasio, the NY State Legislature and NYC City Council have had years to in improve the hospital network and failed. Post 9/11, that’s criminal.
The filthy truth is the affluent and rich go to private hospitals in the city and Long Island. The poor pile up and die in awful city-run hospitals.
Let me guess. Last time you came to NYC and took the fabulous bus tour, they didn’t mention anything about the hospitals?
3 years ago
Reply to
DemocracyRules
NYC residents are victims of their own self-serving hype. They buy into the lie that everything in NYC is “great” and better than the rest of America. Culturally, NYC is tough to beat but much of the critical infrastructure like hospitals, roads, govt services are sub par. In a pandemic, that stuff can determine life or death.
3 years ago
Reply to
Worsethanitlooks
Well said. And it’s typical of tyrant culture, to grab all the power and money, but subjugate the citizenry, by making them poor, sick, ignorant, and hopeless. E.g., The Bronx, Brooklyn, Union City, etc., etc. Meanwhile 600 trillion goes through NYC financial institutions every year.
3 years ago
Reply to
Worsethanitlooks
There is lots of fraud in their elections too. The city is totally run by corrupt Demoncrappers. The demographic shift is third world. Illegals vote. I can’t see even a RINO getting elected there.
3 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Felix: FYI:
Hi Dan. Yes, thanks for your input. Strangely, up above, Felix posted
a tweet that just showed the link, not the whole tweet. Then he fiddled
with it, and now even the link is gone.
This is not likely to be caused by Pamela’s moderator, livingengine. More likely, it’s a Disqus foible. Disqus has arcane algorithms to prevent scams and spams,
and I am always on the brink of getting spanked by them, because I post
stuff in bold, use unusual characters, like dashes and tildes, and post
complex images like graphs that all look the same to a photo filter. So I
often lose the capacity to even post images on Geller Report. They
don’t like my graphs!
Felix may be getting similar treatment from Disqus, because he is a high volume commenter, and he is likely to offend the Disqus algorithms eventually.
3 years ago
Reply to
DemocracyRules
I was placed in timeout on another site.
I had neglected to put a space after a period, causing the censor algorithm to interpret it as a link, according to the “human” censor, who didn’t like that I questioned the hold the algorithm placed on the comment.
3 years ago
Reply to
tedlv
Yeah, some sites forbid hot links. This works:
www dot website dot com
but then, visitors must replace the ‘space dot space’ with the dreaded periods.
3 years ago
Reply to
DemocracyRules
Not with the TGP censor, who had previously placed me in timeout for posting “dictionary dot com”, claiming it was a link, and I had been posting there long enough to know better. “Another site” in my comment above was TGP.
3 years ago
Bailout Biden 2020 !!
3 years ago
Reply to
Anthony Silvio
LOL, we think that’s outrageous … but Democrats really think that’s a good idea … 😉
… you and yours have a wonderful week, Anthony!
3 years ago
Waste, graft, and mismanagement is synonymous with democRAT leadership.
3 years ago
“These models gave a horrifying prediction that suggested COVID-19 could kill anywhere from 200,000 to 1.7 million Americans.”
He forgot to add, those models were without mitigation efforts. 100,000 – 200,000 was with mitigation efforts, and guessing how successful those mitigation efforts would be. There was no similar situation in history to gauge public cooperation.
The “doomsday” predictions didn’t include early, aggressive, and successful efforts to slow and minimize the spread.
When haven’t Democrats wasted money? They rob us while they’re murdering us.
3 years ago
Reply to
spfoam1
spfoam1: Yes, good points about the effects of mitigation measures. Covid-19 is claimed to have an infection rate [Rzero, or just R0] of about 2.25. So every case infects 2.25 other people. Epidemics stop when R zero gets less than one, because one case infects fewer than one other person, and the number of infected cases just dies out. Mitigation measures are deigned to do that, get the R0 to less than 1, by keeping the infection from spreading, person to person. South Korea now has an R0 down to far less than 1, with fewer than 10 new cases per day, so it can be done. And those models are bunk.
3 years ago
Give New York its independence.
3 years ago
Mismanagement and waste by the government responding to a pandemic
… tell me it isn’t so …
3 years ago
Reply to
Dan Knight
It is interesting to note that the USNS Comfort left NY Harbor Friday having only treated 183 patients, a tiny fraction of its capacity.
3 years ago
Reply to
Drew the Infidel
Yes … and what little good the ship could have done … was undone apparently because they sent Chicom virus patients to nursing homes – if the news reports are accurate …
It’s maddening …
We understand over-reacting and ‘fog of war’ … but the inability to manage anything correctly is all we need to know … we should not hand over total control of everything to the government.
Hope you’re doing well despite all your hardships and sorrows …
… and you and yours have a wonderful week, Drew!
3 years ago
Lefties want these Government Uber Alles criminals to run everything – not just our healthcare …
3 years ago
Sorry for the multiple posts, but I just have to ask …
… did anyone else notice Fredo’s Big Brother giving us the Rayyahsissst White Supremacy hand sign?
3 years ago
Reply to
Dan Knight
Yeah 🙂
Funny thing is, it used to mean “OK”
And historically it is a yoga mudra used for thousands of years to channel subtle energies.
3 years ago
Reply to
AlgorithmicAnalyst
Not “WP”. Look for 3 numbers….
One of their creepy rules says they have to show it in public.
3 years ago
Reply to
AlgorithmicAnalyst
;-)) … I think it still means okay … with or without biscuits in a tin …
… as for the yoga connection – I never knew that – learn something new everyday !
… you and yours have a wonderful week out there on the Left coast, AA!
3 years ago
Reply to
spfoam1
Yes, they are sick … 😉
… stay safe, and you and yours have a wonderful week!
3 years ago
Another shining example of government run healthcare. When will they get it through their thick Marxist heads it simply does not work, has never worked and will never work? LibTards, Marxists and Muslims are schizophrenic as they all deny reality and historical evidence, repeating over and over, endlessly the same errors and fallacies. We are insane for allowing these mental mutants to rule over us, to have any serious participation in political expression, and bending our will and lives to their collective madness.
3 years ago
It wasn’t long ago in Cuomo NY that politicians and the media celebrated that public defecation and urination would no longer subject the perp to arrest by the NYPD. Now the NYPD arrests people going to church or funeral services.
3 years ago
Wasn’t the first know case in Washington State in a nursing home? SO, why weren’t these homes given priority? Why, if it was known that the elderly were the group that was hit worse by this virus, were the nursing homes ignored?
3 years ago
New York, and NYC in particular, have utterly mishandled this pandemic. No other state or city comes close.
3 years ago
It is my firm opinion that most NYers get what they deserve based on there politicol selections. They never learn. But the uncalled for deaths of elderly due to gross ignorance is certainly an exception. An exception for which the leftist officials of NY and their supporters will rot in hell for!
3 years ago
Im certain parties do not stop using this site for personal love letters they will be blocked despite the fact they occasionally have something pertainent to say.
3 years ago
Wonder how many billions de blovio and his mrs. have liberated for themselves from NYC coffers since he entered office? 100? 200? More?
3 years ago
“Albany is said to have heeded a Twitter message from a Silicon Valley electrical engineer and purchased 1,450 ventilators — at three times the retail price. Only the devices are yet to arrive, and Cuomo stated Friday that they are attempting to get their money back.” Wait, WHAT? The State of NY ordered millions of dollars of equipment from a tweet? No purchase order? WTF? That needs investigating. The rest of the story is just as comical. What a clusterfuck brought to you by the demonrat party!!!
