Monday, March 30, 2020

California Had 2,400 Mobile Ventilators, Democrats Got Rid of Them

Medical response teams would also have access to a massive stockpile of emergency supplies: 50 million N95 respirators, 2,400 portable ventilators and kits to set up 21,000 additional patient beds wherever they were needed.

In 2006, citing the threat of avian flu, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the state would invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a powerful set of medical weapons to deploy in the case of large-scale emergencies and natural disasters such as earthquakes, fires and pandemics.

The state, flush with tax revenue, soon sank more than $200 million into the mobile hospital program and a related Health Surge Capacity Initiative to stockpile medicines and medical gear for use in outbreaks of infectious disease, according to former emergency management officials and state budget records.

In the end, Backer said he's not sure what happened to it all, and the California Department of Public Health did not answer questions about what became of the alternative care site supplies.

At its height, the state's stockpile held more than 50 million N95 respirators, but without continued funding, that supply dwindled.

A Democrat from Carmel, suggested the state should sell its unneeded medical equipment on eBay.

Several dealers who buy and sell used medical equipment said they recall many of California's ventilators ended up being resold by hospitals and nursing homes to other dealers, who then likely shipped them out of the United States.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/03/california-had-2400-mobile-ventilators-democrats-daniel-greenfield/

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