By skyforbes 
A daily Covid-19 update from Andy Slavitt, former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Pulled from my daily COVID-19 updates on Twitter.
I’m going to try to have some of the positives in here, but also present the facts of what is around the corner. This sums up what I know from the Administration, states, manufacturers of gear, hospitals, and major tech companies. And it’s only 4:30 (pm ET).
Last weeks issues — like lack of testing — are being discussed and addressed but it is taking time. There are more re-agents being made. It will still take weeks to get them. Now swabs are running out. People are working on this, but there isn’t enough supply around the globe.
And everyone around the globe is competing to buy the same products. But swabs is only the beginning of the problem. Every supply needed to keep our frontline health care workers feeling safe is tied for my number one concern. Experts tell me we need more than 1 billion N-95 face masks. I don’t know how many we have today but I suspect it’s less than 10% of that capacity. Let me explain what’s going on:
- A whole number of factories closed over the last few years that were making masks because they were too cheap. Good news is there are a number of empty factories to be brought on.
- China has repurposed shoe factories and other factories. We haven’t.
- A fine mesh fabric is required. A special machine is required. These take months.
- But the current mask producers could make more and there are some dormant factories.
The government must tell them now that they will pay for them.
This matters. Doctors in Denver where the virus hasn’t been yet say they are almost out of masks. A nurse somewhere else (can’t say) told us that her staff isn’t being given sufficient masks. She’s president of the union. I talked to the CEO who said she had no good answers.
We need an all hands approach to making our front line health care workers, nursing home staff & docs feel safe. Period. If not they will agitate & many wont show up. People who can change this are aware and need to step up.
I have another call to action: AG’s (Attorney Generals) across the country and at the Justice Department must immediately go after and prosecute profiteers. One highly reliable and very well known person told me he received an offer to sell him 1 million masks. People are selling them for $200 on Amazon. And we regular people do not need them. Do not buy them. You need your health care workforce much more.
The issue of hospital capacity is a real problem. I will share this now pertaining to NY because Governor Cuomo shared these numbers today. Brace yourself. The green and yellow bars are how many ICU beds (with ventilators) are needed. See the little red line? That’s how many we have.
Getting the Department of Defense to bring hospital ships to the major ports is part of the answer. But even with hospital beds we need the workforce there. And we need ventilators.
One tech company is undertaking an effort to build 100,000 ventilators in a month. I’m sure there is a ton more great innovative stuff happening.
The other thing I worry about/hope for is that we get the #StayHome #StayTheFHome message.
Atul Gawande, Sandra Hernandez, Bob Kocher, Eric Topol, Bill Frist, Lanhee J. Chen,
, former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and several others got together to put down the 30 things to know and 1 big one.
Those 30 things are in this USA Today piece. Some are for health care workers, some for state & local officials, and some are for the rest of us. If we can get minimal social interaction, we can prevent a lot of deaths:
It’s so important because of where I started: masks, ventilators, hospital beds, the workforce. All of it. It can’t hold up if we spread the virus. And we often spread it without knowing it (to an average of more than 2 people). We have no immunity and it’s lethal for some.