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Bad News for Houston today?

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by: 14 OP
~ 4 years ago Mar 28, '20 4:08pm

Bad News for Houston today?

www.houstonchronicle .com/local/article/C oronavirus-live-upda tes-Texas-coron

2:30 p.m. Shortly after announcing Houston's number of confirmed COVID-19 cases tripled, Mayor Sylvester Turner said he got disappointing news about the continued efforts to enhance testing here.

The federal government told the mayor that they will only send enough personal protective gear to conduct 250 tests a day in the city.

The plan, for weeks, has been to open two city sites that each can do 250 tests per day. One of those sites opened March 20 and has conducted more than 1,500 tests. The other has been held up due to delays in shipments.

Now, the federal government is saying those shipments won't come at all.

"That's just not acceptable. That's not much at all, and then basically what they're saying is, if you want to set up and do more, that that cost is on the local jurisdiction," Turner said. "So we're going to have to try to figure out how to work that out… We need robust testing in order to get a better measurement of the degree of community spread that exists in our city."

Turner also said the city would open its lone testing site to anyone with symptoms. People can call 832-393-4220 to start the screening process.

Harris County is operating two sites, one in Katy and one in Baytown. Their screening process is online at readyharris.org.

Private labs, like hospitals and other health clinics, have accounted for the vast majority of testing in Texas, conducting more than 22,000 of the 25,260 tests done in the state as of noon Saturday.

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14 OP
~ 4 years ago Mar 28, '20 4:09pm

"Let me just say, the testing has been limited. We know there are more cases," Turner said. "The way I look at it, I take 232 and I multiply by 10. Because we just don't know."

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14
~ 4 years ago Mar 28, '20 4:12pm

So the medical facilities have enough tests?

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14 OP
~ 4 years ago Mar 28, '20 4:13pm

Watch this, the last minute or so really talks about this. Dr. Fauci.

www.youtube.com/watc h?v=8A3jiM2FNR8

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6
~ 4 years ago Mar 28, '20 4:14pm

That sucks.
A.) i wish they would list they exact PPE supplies they are using and which they are low on. That might be able to help get what they need if more people and businesses have that visisbility.

B.) i wish there was a FEMA tracking sight that would show what supplies they are shipping each state, And then a site showing where the Governors of each state are sending them.

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14 OP
~ 4 years ago Mar 28, '20 4:22pm

*Edited

The Mayor talked about this in one of his conferences this week. It basically sounds like eBay for medical supplies. Whatever is being sold privately is bid on by various states and counties across the country, and even the federal government, and the highest bidder wins. And even then, private sellers are reneging on agreements as they get better offers elsewhere after the fact.

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10
~ 4 years ago Mar 28, '20 4:29pm

*Edited

What PPE do they need? I wouldn't think the PPE would be the expensive part so I don't see where the problem is. Gloves are cheap. Alcohol wipes are cheap. Soap is cheap. Safety masks are cheap. Face shields are cheap to clean.
What can the city not afford to provide? Because the PPE is not expensive.
Maybe it's expensive because they are buying things via the government x10 cost? $2.00 for a $0.16 pair of disposable gloves would get expensive.

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6
~ 4 years ago Mar 28, '20 4:40pm

What PPE do they need? I wouldn't think the PPE would be the expensive part so I don't see where the problem is. Gloves are cheap. Alcohol wipes are cheap. Soap is cheap. Safety masks are cheap. Face shields are cheap to clean. What can the city not afford to provide? Because the PPE is not expensive. Maybe it's expensive because they are buying things via the government x10 cost? $2.00 for a $0.16 pair of disposable gloves would get expensive.

@DiverDude : Yes. If they listed what their exact shortages are i am sure they could get donations or leads from other people.

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14 OP
~ 4 years ago Mar 28, '20 4:44pm

Google - I see several articles where what has been obtained, donated, and needed.

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10
~ 4 years ago Mar 28, '20 4:57pm

DiverDude : Yes. If they listed what their exact shortages are i am sure they could get donations or leads from other people.

@M1cha3lo0o : My guess is that it has nothing to do with the shortage and more of a political (...all the help we're getting) jab against President Trump. Or a greed quest to get more money. Gloves are not in short supply. Neither are cotton swabs. I'm sure they can easily get alcohol even if it means paying medical price. I would predict that the expense would be less than $300/day (at inflated prices) being that they are obviously going to purchase a bulk amount.
Of course they will do this by accepting bids and purchasing from the lowest bidder that has the best kick-backs, instead of just getting it from the store like everyone else would. Then they will limit who can bid on the proposal and charge companies to be able to bid.
Many years ago I sold custom computers and I clearly remember the nonsense that they would sometimes require to bid on a computer. Basically it mean that everyone had to pay up front just to bid. It was often a non-disclosed bid (meaning that you couldn't see the other bids nor the winning bid) Then they would pick the bid that was most beneficial as opposed to the best value.

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6
~ 4 years ago Mar 28, '20 5:00pm

@DiverDude : I am curious about the supply chains.
These bids, are they with foreign or domestic?
Because what our trade laws have done i assume they are foreign, where our Fed Gov really has no control.
If we started making sure at least at least 50% of every market was domestic i think they could then control issues like these. ( the bidding wars ).

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6
~ 4 years ago Mar 28, '20 5:01pm

Google - I see several articles where what has been obtained, donated, and needed.

@HumbleGirl : Have you seen any that state what items exactly Houston will be lacking to do the testing? Besides them using the generic term "PPE" ? I haven't found one yet.

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10
~ 4 years ago Mar 28, '20 5:09pm

DiverDude : I am curious about the supply chains. These bids, are they with foreign or domestic? Because what our trade laws have done i assume they are foreign, where our Fed Gov really has no control. If we started making sure at least at least 50% of every market was domestic i think they could then control issues like these. ( the bidding wars ).

@M1cha3lo0o : The bids that we were looking at were for local only. They wanted service with the computers. Often they wanted on-site installation or field service warranty. I've seen small companies produce their own computer case. (which basically just meant legally re-branding) And the build proposal demanded that you had to bid on a computer system with this particular brand of computer case. (which was exactly the same as others but nobody else could re-brand) So it was basically set up so that only one company could bid. Pretty sweet deal for that company. Obviously some brother-in-law crap going on.

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6
~ 4 years ago Mar 28, '20 5:11pm

*Edited

Hopefully they can hurry up with the self administered tests.
Those will be a game changer.

medcitynews.com/2020 /03/fda-says-patient s-can-self-administe r-covid-19-test

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6
~ 4 years ago Mar 28, '20 5:15pm

Germany is conducting half a million tests per week, WOW.

twitter.com/dwnews/s tatus/12436274382377 16480

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14 OP
~ 4 years ago Mar 28, '20 5:43pm

Oh yes, I'm sure we have enough of everything and money out the wazoo for anything we need and we are just withholding it and/or lying about it to make a political point. I have to discard that line of thinking because if true....

This talks about Texas supplies.

The state does not maintain a stockpile of such equipment - a proposal to create one failed in the Legislature in 2015 - but Gov. Greg Abbott has promised providers an influx is coming. On Tuesday, Abbott announced purchase orders of more than $80 million worth of supplies and said the state should soon receive more than 1 million masks per week. But he acknowledged that Texas is competing for protective gear, including with the federal government, and called for donations of any materials that could help.

Earlier this month, Texas officials received supplies from a national stockpile, including 1.15 million surgical masks; 219,000 face shields; 179,000 gowns; 637,000 gloves and 484,000 N95 respirators, which are superior for infectious disease control because they fit more tightly and block out smaller particles than surgical masks do. About a quarter of that has already been distributed to every region in the state, and Abbott said Tuesday that more supplies should be coming to Texas soon.

www.texastribune.org /2020/03/25/texas-ho spitals-coronavirus- personal-protec

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