Let me clarify my language then: Why doesn’t POTUS45 announce increased orders of testing supplies as a result of invoking the DPA, instead of saying he’s going to invoke the DPA? Intent is not completion.
This has been going on for weeks now. From a WAPO article on March 25:
Trump has invoked this 1950 wartime production measure but has not deployed it. Numerous states and health officials are [pleading with him]
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A month later, here’s an article from yesterday’s WAPO that explains the situation succinctly:
President Trump’s announced orders of medical supplies using the Defense Production Act (DPA) should be a source of relief. To reopen the country, we’ll need tests to detect the presence of both the coronavirus and possible signs of immunity, and DPA orders can provide those tests. However, unlike most government contracts, DPA orders are not public documents, leaving Americans in the dark about one of the administration’s key tools in its covid-19 response.
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The situation has been going on for a month now. To say you’re going to invoke something is one thing. But you have to actually carry through with it.
Now look at his actions with meat production re: the DPA (from today’s WAPO:
President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday evening compelling meat processors to remain open to head off shortages in the nation’s food supply chains, despite mounting reports of plant worker deaths due to covid-19.
Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to classify meat plants as essential infrastructure that must remain open.
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Here he actually signed an executive order. Where is the executive order for testing supplies? Show it to me and I’ll simply say I was wrong. Forgive me if I’m jaded, but it’s been a month since it’s been talked about. What haven’t we seen it?
To have reiterated “testing everyone in the country" I would have had to repeat it. Where have I repeated it? In one thread I stated that if we could test everyone in the country it would be useful. That’s a statement, not a plan. I have, in many threads advocated for large scale testing. In this I’m just listening to leaders and experts:
From New York:
“We know that testing is a key component of re-opening the economy and getting to a new normal, and New York State is already doing more tests per capita than any state or country,” *Governor Cuomo said.
Washington-state (Governor Inslee, from Seattle Times);
To attain even the low end of Inslee’s target, Washington would need a sevenfold increase in its current average of tests per day (about 2,845 since Feb. 29). The state also may have to achieve the feat with limited federal support, as the Trump administration has said this week that testing capacities were sufficient nationwide…
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NZ, South Korea and other nations are performing more tests, as a percentage of the population, than the USA is. Why is the USA lagging foreign nations? I truly do not understand this. The greatest nation in the world is lagging behind South Korea?
Where in these threads do you find me saying that the USA can eliminate the virus from our shores? I don’t recall saying that. I have noted in these threads that NZ has elimination as a national goal, but I have not said that the goal is achievable here. Though I do applaud the NZ prime minister for being such an inspiring, tenacious leader.
If you believe that COVID19 control in the USA is a matter of mitigation and not elimination, then you and I agree on that point.
Are you saying POTUS45 invoking the DPA is just symbolic? If we can’t increase the production capacity of glorified cotton swabs, then the people in charge should just say so. Otherwise confusion results.
Governor Inslee has said that the actual testing equipment–the lab analysis units–are working under capacity. We’re just waiting on big, sterilized Q-tips and a few other do-able things.