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GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

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Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#11

Post by cycrutchfield »

caymanjim wrote: post #5
asdfman123 wrote: post #2

If we were halfway rational, we would have started this in January. Failing that, start now.

This is pure hindsight. This didn't warrant that kind of response in January, not by a longshot. In January it looked exactly like the other comparatively minor respiratory viruses that pop up every few years. We can't shut down industry and retool factories just in case.

Not sure if you recall, but in January China put large portions of the country under lockdown in a quarantine effort of unprecedented scale. At that point, the writing was on the wall that this was not something that "looked exactly like the other comparatively minor respiratory viruses that pop up every few years".

Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#13

Post by gravypod »

caymanjim wrote: post #5
asdfman123 wrote: post #2

If we were halfway rational, we would have started this in January. Failing that, start now.

This is pure hindsight. This didn't warrant that kind of response in January, not by a longshot. In January it looked exactly like the other comparatively minor respiratory viruses that pop up every few years. We can't shut down industry and retool factories just in case.

> This didn't warrant that kind of response in January

Could China's mobilization of resources have been a hint to us that this would have made sense? Even early on there were stories breaking of people taking double doses of some meds to lower their temperature to get through fever screening. Shortly after that we found out there was a very long incubation period. Shortly after that there was talk of mild/asymptomatic spread.

All the while no one shut down air travel and boarders while China locked down it's country.

It's not the time to play the blame game but saying this is entirely hindsight doesn't make sense to me. Many people were talking about stocking and isolating in Jan/Feb. Back then they are just met with misinformed masses "the flu kills..."

Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#14

Post by ewoodrich »

caymanjim wrote: post #5
asdfman123 wrote: post #2

If we were halfway rational, we would have started this in January. Failing that, start now.

This is pure hindsight. This didn't warrant that kind of response in January, not by a longshot. In January it looked exactly like the other comparatively minor respiratory viruses that pop up every few years. We can't shut down industry and retool factories just in case.

By late January the Chinese government had already ordered the lockdown in Wuhan. There were plenty of signs that this wasn't an unremarkable minor respiratory virus.

Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#15

Post by chii »

caymanjim wrote: post #5
asdfman123 wrote: post #2

If we were halfway rational, we would have started this in January. Failing that, start now.

This is pure hindsight. This didn't warrant that kind of response in January, not by a longshot. In January it looked exactly like the other comparatively minor respiratory viruses that pop up every few years. We can't shut down industry and retool factories just in case.

the correct response should look like an overreaction in hindsight. But it's tough to explain the cost of the overreaction if said overreaction prevented all of these problems.

I make the analogy with an engineer receiving accolades for fixing bugs and outages with heroic effort. But the engineer that creates trouble free code, that never has any problems, but takes a long time to create code that's bug free seems to be over-cautious or over-engineering a solution. They get reprimanded for taking too long or using too much resources during development. But they never receive the praise for the non-events like no outages or no errors/issues.

Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#16

Post by maxerickson »

caymanjim wrote: post #5
asdfman123 wrote: post #2

If we were halfway rational, we would have started this in January. Failing that, start now.

This is pure hindsight. This didn't warrant that kind of response in January, not by a longshot. In January it looked exactly like the other comparatively minor respiratory viruses that pop up every few years. We can't shut down industry and retool factories just in case.

Xi Jinping enacted severe measures in China on Jan 21.

That's not your retool date, but it's a later "take a long hard look at things" date for people doing public health planning at the national level.

Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#17

Post by goatherders »

endorphone wrote: post #8
gkoberger wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, at this point, I'll take it.

You should take actual progress , not bullshit. I'll take the whipping, but this administration is 100% show. If they cared about actual progress they would announce an actual plan, with actual participation of the company. Instead it's yet another incredibly lazy "See...and now we'll do jack shit for another week we've presidented". And I'm sure the imaginary ventilators would be the best. Just beautiful. Everyone s…

Would you share what company that is. Interested to learn more.

Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#18

Post by manigandham »

caymanjim wrote: post #5
asdfman123 wrote: post #2

If we were halfway rational, we would have started this in January. Failing that, start now.

This is pure hindsight. This didn't warrant that kind of response in January, not by a longshot. In January it looked exactly like the other comparatively minor respiratory viruses that pop up every few years. We can't shut down industry and retool factories just in case.

We cancelled international travel plans in mid-January because of the expanding virus within China and the first cases in other countries. It was clear by then that there was no containment and the spread was underway.

The federal govt has even more insight than average people watching the news and should've acted aggressively in closing borders and improving capacity. US (and EU) have reacted terribly late to all of this.

Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#19

Post by adrr »

caymanjim wrote: post #5
asdfman123 wrote: post #2

If we were halfway rational, we would have started this in January. Failing that, start now.

This is pure hindsight. This didn't warrant that kind of response in January, not by a longshot. In January it looked exactly like the other comparatively minor respiratory viruses that pop up every few years. We can't shut down industry and retool factories just in case.

SARS happened less than 20 years ago. We should have been well aware what happens with these types of coronaviruses.

Re: GM’s CEO Offers to Make Ventilators in WWII-Style Mobilization

#20

Post by kiba »

caymanjim wrote: post #5
asdfman123 wrote: post #2

If we were halfway rational, we would have started this in January. Failing that, start now.

This is pure hindsight. This didn't warrant that kind of response in January, not by a longshot. In January it looked exactly like the other comparatively minor respiratory viruses that pop up every few years. We can't shut down industry and retool factories just in case.

We should already have the ventilator in stock beforehand.
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