In short, the health-care system is fraying: “Hospitals reported that their most significant challenges centered on testing and caring for patients with known or suspected COVID-19 and keeping staff safe,” the report states. “Hospitals also reported substantial challenges maintaining or expanding their facilities’ capacity to treat patients with COVID-19.” In addition: “Hospitals described specific challenges, mitigation strategies, and needs for assistance related to personal protective equipment (PPE), testing, staffing, supplies and durable equipment; maintaining or expanding facility capacity; and financial concerns.”

“Substantial challenges” is government-ese for “mess.” In particular, the report documents “severe shortages of testing supplies and extended waits for test results limited hospitals’ ability to monitor the health of patients and staff.” There are also “widespread shortages” of protective equipment such masks and gowns, inadequate staff, shortages in hospital capacity and shortages of hospital equipment. That includes not just ventilators but also basic supplies such as “intravenous therapy (IV) poles, medical gas, linens, toilet paper, and food. Others reported shortages of no-touch infrared thermometers, disinfectants, and cleaning supplies.” This is shameful.

As one might expect when the federal government is led by a president spouting disinformation, hospitals are afflicted with conflicting and confusing directives from “different government and medical authorities, including criteria for testing, determining which elective procedures to delay, use of PPE, and getting supplies from the national stockpile.”

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The report serves as an indictment of President Trump’s attitude that states should fend for themselves. Unsurprisingly, the report confirms hospitals are competing against each other for scare material and equipment. Hospitals are forced to reuse PPEs or use nonstandard protective equipment, putting their staff at risk. Hospitals are telling us that “government intervention and coordination could help reconcile this problem at the national level to provide equitable distribution of supplies throughout the country.” The notion that the federal government is only a backup fails to recognize that the states are overrun and need that aid now.

At times, the report seems to bend over backward to use noninflammatory language and to acknowledge that the federal government is working on these problems. But there is no hiding the strains on the hospital system that were evident weeks ago and the utter failure of the federal government to shoulder its responsibilities.

This abdication of duty is born of confusion, incompetence and ignorance. How many weeks has the president insisted there is no testing shortage? How many times has Trump declared that hospitals do not need all these ventilators? He has either been ignorant of the facts (very possible in an administration in which Trump does not want to hear bad news that contradicts his world of make-believe), or he is lying because he does not want to be blamed for the fiasco. It bears repeating that as cases and deaths have soared, the situation is likely even more dire than captured in the report — a result of the ongoing dearth of presidential leadership.

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