Local New York Republican won't say where he got a hold of ventilators and test kits.

[RandySF]

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon today said the county acquired 60 ventilators to be on hand when desperately ill patients with COVID-19 need help breathing.

Where did he get them? None of your business.

Same with coronavirus test kits.

While other Upstate counties have run so low on test kits that they only test healthcare workers and the most severe cases for COVID-19, Onondaga County continues to test everyone with symptoms who seeks a test. The county has enough test kits to last through mid-week at least, McMahon said.
Where did they come from? He’s not saying.

The equipment needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic is in short supply. McMahon does not want to invite more competition for fear it could drive up prices.

“We’re not going to give away our supply chains right now because it is that competitive,’’ McMahon said.

For now, the war against coronavirus is being fought county by county, each county fending for itself. The same is true for states. Gov. Andrew Cuomo today said New York must bid for vital equipment against other states, driving up the price for everyone.

“This is not the way to do it,’’ Cuomo said. “This is ad hoc. I’m competing with other states. I’m bidding up other states on the prices.’’



https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/03/where-did-onondaga-county-buy-60-ventilators-to-fight-coronavirus-none-of-your-business.html

[MontanaMama]

1. Because we're all not Americans I guess.

[getagrip_already]

2. probably fed gov't stocks....

They are shipping materiual out of the strategic reserve, but not saying where it is going.

Sure.

It is going to republican states and districts with enough juice to get them. Nothing to dem areas.

[Igel]

6. I don't find the article completely coherent.

https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/03/coronavirus-testing-syracuse-and-other-upstate-areas-fight-shortage-of-test-kits.html is one of the links. It's the source for "other counties are running low."

And says Onandaga county, as of 3/19, had been given 110 kits by the state.

Similarly, the DPA is there to coerce companies not doing certain things to do them: To accept government contracts, prioritize federal contacts, open factories or repurpose existing facilities to do meet the US contracts they must accept. It can also go one level deeper, and require the provision of raw materials for their contracts, if companies have a hard time acquiring them. One reason for the original DPA was the shortage of some raw commodities like steel in the strikes in the late '40s, and the DPA could also order strikers back to work.

What's left out is the assertion with any evidence that companies aren't gearing up or aren't accepting contracts. What's being said seems to be, "We need them now, we need them more than others, so the DPA should be used to redirect output." It's being called "increase output" but nobody's shown that the DPA would actually get the companies working at that more than they are.

Worse yet? Few ventilator factories (possibly none) are in the US, so the US really can't do much about those facilities per se in terms of production or supplies. And the US can whip the local subsidiaries, but so can other countries. The winner in that game is the country with the factories.

[Thomas Hurt]

3. standard "f**k you I got mine" conservatism.

[2naSalit]

5. Apparently many see that as THE American way. ...nt

[customerserviceguy]

4. I lived in NY for over ten years

It's all about "connections".

[stillcool]

7. that way in every state...

hell...every town.

[customerserviceguy]

8. Nope

it's way, way worse in the northeast than it is in any other place I ever lived.

[stillcool]

10. well..there you have it...

I've lived all over the northeast coast for several decades. Brief stint in Fla, and Pa...where oddly enough people were people there too!

[customerserviceguy]

12. Apparently

we've had different experiences. I remember the "I-know-a-cop" cards that people carried in their wallets in case they got pulled over. I even had one once, the only thing I used it for was to show my friends and family back in the Pacific Northwest how corrupt things were in NY.

I used to fascinate people where I worked in New Jersey with a true story of how a cop in Olympia, Washington pulled over a driver who was weaving, and when he saw that the woman behind the wheel was obviously somewhat drunk, he busted her. The part of the story that made their mouths drop open was that this woman was a state Supreme Court Justice. That would never happen in NY or NJ. Muckety-mucks had brass shields that were affixed by suction cups to the part of the windshield that had the auto registration sticker.

[stillcool]

13. Never happen? Ah well...good for you.

does remind me....I had relatives that were cops, and they defintely did protect their own. Still do. All over the country...but not where you live.

[Wounded Bear]

9. The ultimate free market is a black market...

And like the post up thread, it's not about what you know but who you know.