Complete incompetence in the face of a global crisis

The Trump administration has yet to complete a comprehensive assessment, despite weeks of discussion about using [the Defense Production Act] to help prevent the medical system from being overrun, according to current and former administration officials. Even Trump said on Wednesday that he's in no hurry to order the supplies.

In an executive order issued Wednesday afternoon, Trump granted authority primarily to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to determine “the proper nationwide priorities” and to allocate all necessary health and medical resources and services.

Azar will work with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the heads of other agencies as appropriate, the order says.

  Politico

Good luck keeping Wilbur awake.

Invoking the DPA means that if the government places an order with a private company for any medical equipment to treat the coronavirus — masks and ventilators are the two prime examples — then that company would be required to fulfill the government’s order before anyone else’s.

It's a mark of capitalism's shortcomings that they haven't already voluntarily ramped up production for medical needs.

But while it gives the government priority, invoking the act does not do anything to increase production of these items, which increasingly are in short supply.

[...]

A White House spokesperson didn't respond when asked whether the administration is positioned to immediately begin placing orders with private companies, or what those orders would might like.

Because that spokesperson has no idea. No one does.

And Trump followed up the order with a tweet in which he indicated that he is in no rush to use the authorities. "I only signed the Defense Production Act to combat the Chinese Virus should we need to invoke it in a worst case scenario in the future," he wrote. "Hopefully there will be no need, but we are all in this TOGETHER!"

Fucking POS.

Lawmakers and former government officials who have been responsible for disaster preparedness and participated in exercises to game out responses in such national crises expressed alarm at the seemingly blasé approach.

"The government should be placing purchasing orders for this equipment and they should know what they are asking for," said Katrina Mulligan, former director for preparedness and response in the National Security Division of the Justice Department and former member of the National Security Council staff. "And right now, it appears that neither of those things are happening."

“They have not done this assessment," said Mulligan, who is managing director of national security and international policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. "It is shocking. It is malpractice.”

Not at all shocking, but definitely malpractice.

Impeach the Asshole.

"Somebody in the federal government needs to be doing that assessment so that you can have an informed ask of the manufacturing community," [Kelly Magsamen, a former Pentagon official and National Security Council staffer in the Bush and Obama administrations said]. “I’m hoping they’ve been working on it for some time."

Prepare to be disappointed, Ma'am.

Chris Brooks, chief strategy officer for Seattle-area Ventec Life Systems, said he's fielding inquiries and orders from more than 60 countries, including the U.S. government. But with the U.S., he said the focus is still on working out what exactly it needs.

[...]

“Certainly, with a definitive answer about what that need is, we could provide a definitive answer as to whether we could meet that need.”

[...]

[Mulligan] added, "you would identify the manufacturers domestically who produce those items. Do you have the capacity to do more within your current manufacturing capacity? Can you ramp up production? For the last month, we could have been figuring these questions out. There is absolutely no reason why we are starting that now."

Yes, there is. The reason is: the Trump administration.