Trump passes the buck as deadly ventilator shortage looms

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/02/politics/donald-trump-ventilators-leadership-coronavirus/index.html

Navarro said the President had ordered General Motors to manufacture ventilators in "Trump time -- which is as fast as possible," even though the President rebuffed calls for weeks from critics to fully utilize the Defense Production Act to surge their manufacture. On Monday, the President said that Ford had agreed to repurpose production lines to build 50,000 ventilators in 100 days.

"Trump time" is not going to be fast enough for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who said on Thursday his state has about six days at the current "burn rate" of ventilators.

"It's very simple: A person comes into the ICU unit. They need the ventilator, or they die. It's that basic proposition," Cuomo said during a CNN town hall on the coronavirus.

Cuomo said the state had bought 17,000 ventilators but they have yet to be delivered because they are coming from China and 50 states and the federal government are competing for the equipment. New York has only 4,000 ventilators in the state, Cuomo said.

"Obviously, nobody would say that this was the best way to do it," Cuomo said, "to have 50 states compete, but that's where we are."