Although President Donald Trump claimed "nobody in their wildest dreams would have ever thought that we'd need tens of thousands of ventilators," several government agencies have reported for years the U.S. is underprepared to deal with a widespread illness, according to Fox News.
The Government Accountability Office found in 2003, following the SARS outbreak, "that most hospitals lack the capacity to respond to large-scale infectious disease outbreaks," and, "few hospitals have adequate medical equipment, such as the ventilators that are often needed for respiratory infections such as SARS, to handle the large increases in the number of patients that may result."
A similar report from the Congressional Research Service in 2005, which analyzed the avian flu, found, "if this strain were to launch a pandemic and retain this trait, large numbers of victims may require intensive care and ventilatory support, likely exceeding national capacity to provide this level of care. In any event, such specialized care is not available in most developing countries, and access to it is uneven within the United States."
The Department of Health and Human Services found in a report on an influenza pandemic released last year, "despite planning and preparedness, however, in a severe pandemic it is possible that shortages, for example of mechanical ventilators, will occur and medical care standards may need to be adjusted to most effectively provide care and save as many lives as possible."
Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on the need for ventilators, saying last week, "I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they'll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they're saying, 'Can we order 30,000 ventilators?'"
Last weekend, he blamed hospitals for "hoarding" ventilators as a reason for the shortage.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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