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posted by Fnord666 on Monday April 13 2020, @10:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the abiding-by-the-contract dept.

Company prioritizes $15k ventilators over cheaper model specified in contract:

The Dutch company that received millions of taxpayer dollars to develop an affordable ventilator for pandemics but never delivered them has struck a much more lucrative deal with the federal government to make 43,000 ventilators at four times the price.

The US Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday that it plans to pay Royal Philips N.V. $646.7 million for the new ventilators—paying more than $15,000 each. The first 2,500 units are to arrive before the end of May, HHS said, and the rest by the end of December.

Philips refused to say which model of ventilator the government was buying. But in response to questions from ProPublica, HHS officials said the government is purchasing the Trilogy EV300, the more expensive version of the ventilator that was developed with federal funds.

The deal is a striking departure from the federal contract Philips' Respironics division signed in September to produce 10,000 ventilators for the Strategic National Stockpile at a cost of $3,280 each.

"This kind of profiteering—paying four times the negotiated price—is not only irresponsible to taxpayers but is particularly offensive when so many people are out of work," said Dr. Nicole Lurie, who served as the HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response during the Obama administration. "And besides, most of these ventilators will come too late to make a difference in this pandemic. We'll then 'replenish' the stockpile at a ridiculously high price."

"What else," she asked, "won't we be able to buy as a result?"


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday April 13 2020, @03:06PM (3 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 13 2020, @03:06PM (#982019) Journal

    The US already has over half a million confirmed cases. The real number of infected is probably about 10 times that.

    So, roughly 5 million Americans infected? Ohhhh-kay.

    so we're looking at about one in every 100 Americans already infected

    So, that puts the population of the US around 500 million? I'm expecting a mini-baby boom before Christmas. Did I miss the last one? Or, have we had that many illegal aliens crash the border in recent months?

    May I suggest that you are just feeding the fear?

    https://healthvigil.com/flu-season-deaths-us-worlswide/ [healthvigil.com]

    What are flu season deaths?

    According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), flu seasonal related deaths in people are those in which influenza or the flu infection has been a likely contributor as a cause of death, though necessarily not the primary cause.
    Flu season deaths in the Unite States

    More than 200,000 people are hospitalized each year in the United States for the flu illness and its complications and between 3,000 and 49,000 people die each year from the flu. The number of flu deaths every year varies.

    For example,

            The average number of flu deaths during the 1990s was 36,000.
            Average number over a longer time frame from 1976 to 2007 was 23,607 deaths.
            If you take the number of deaths year wise, you will find a vast variation with a low of 3,349 deaths during the flu season of 1986-87 to a high of 48,614 in 2003-04.

    The above-mentioned figures are for adults only and are rough estimates. The CDC estimates that 60 percent of flu-related hospital admissions and 90 percent of flu-related deaths occur in people of this age group. This only makes it all the essential that people of this age group take the flu vaccine every year.

    However, we have the exact number of pediatric flu deaths that occurred year wise from the flu season of 2003-2004 to 2015-2015 in the Unites States.

    2003-04 flu season – 152 pediatric flu deaths
    2004-05 – 39 pediatric deaths
    2005-06 – 41 pediatric deaths
    2006-07 – 68 pediatric deaths
    2007-08 f- 88 pediatric deaths
    2008-09 – 133 pediatric deaths
    2009-10 – 282 pediatric deaths (swine flu pandemic)
    2010-11 – 123 pediatric deaths
    2011-12 – 37 pediatric deaths.
    2012-13 – 171 pediatric deaths
    2013-14 – 111 pediatric deaths
    2014-15 – 148 pediatric deaths
    2015-16 – 77 flu deaths so far
    These deaths don’t mean that all these infants and children died from complications or worsening of a chronic medical condition. Studies indicate that half of the children who die from the flu every year do not have any risk factors. These deaths are purely flu-related deaths.

    So, uhhhh, what are the numbers for the China virus again? I'm not seeing an existential threat to mankind yet. I'm seeing an existential threat to the old, the sick, and the weak. Oh shit, I'm old!!! And, it appears that I am less fearful than you are.

    BTW - "flu related" doesn't exactly mean that the flu killed them. Nor does "Covid-19 related" exactly mean that they died from the China virus. I've mentioned the talk show I listen to often enough. Guests often call in to discuss stuff. At the present time, in some locations, if someone dies, and it isn't known exactly why they died, doctors and coroners are often marking "corona virus related", even if there was no indication of the corona virus prior to death. Basically, when you're swamped, you justify a few shortcuts here and there.

    New Orleans, which was made infamous for some truly heinous cowardly acts in the aftermath of Katrina ranks right up there with inflated Corona virus infections and deaths.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2020, @05:18PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2020, @05:18PM (#982084)

    So, uhhhh, what are the numbers for the China virus again? I'm not seeing an existential threat to mankind yet

    It's definitely not an existential threat to mankind. But it is a terrible optics if you have mass graves for a few million.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday April 13 2020, @07:25PM (1 child)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 13 2020, @07:25PM (#982165) Journal

    so we're looking at about one in every 100 Americans already infected

    So, that puts the population of the US around 500 million?

    Notice the use of the word "about". It covers a lot of numerical sins. Aboutly.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday April 14 2020, @02:58AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 14 2020, @02:58AM (#982382) Journal

      Notice the use of the word "about". It covers a lot of numerical sins. Aboutly.

      I'm pretty sure numerical sins aren't among those that Jesus died for.

      though, I'll have to reread Dante to find out what circle of Hell is designated for those type of sins

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford