![]() …”įollowing Kushner’s misdirection, I checked the same page of the Strategic National Stockpile site early Friday morning. “The Strategic National Stockpile's role is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies. The supplies, medicines, and devices for life-saving care contained in the stockpile can be used as a short-term stopgap buffer when the immediate supply of adequate amounts of these materials may not be immediately available.” Many states have products stockpiled, as well. This is the story of the Trump presidency as it grinds on to the detriment of the nation: Lie in a time of crisis. ![]() When your lie is exposed, blame the messenger and the opposition, then wallpaper over the lie with another deception.Īnd so the craven rewrite of the Strategic National Stockpile web page information was no surprise. ![]() Only a few weeks ago, while medical experts were warning us of the approaching pandemic, Trump publicly denied the facts. The Trump administration’s catastrophic response to the coronavirus pandemic is costing lives and increasingly pits state against state and city against city in a race to secure ventilators for critical patients and PPE for everyone from physicians to grocery store clerks. Instead of a real-time war-time ramping up of production, the kind only possible by a president moved to action by the gravity of a crisis, we received quibbling from Kushner about effective management at the state level. “Don’t ask us for things when you don’t know what you have in your own state,” Kushner said. You have to take inventory of what you have in your own state and then you have to be able to show there’s a real need.” “Just because you’re scared, you ask your medical professionals and they don’t know. It’s not nearly enough to give our people a fighting chance. Steve Sisolak has repeatedly requested federal assistance as Nevada health care providers and first responders scramble to prepare for the crush of COVID-19 patients it will receive. His requests have been denied or delayed while our citizens get sicker. He may be scared, but he certainly doesn’t need to take inventory. In addition to following the advice of the CDC and the medical experts the president scoffed at not long ago, this past week Sisolak cinched up his stay-at-home order, issued a travel advisory, applied for disaster relief, activated the National Guard, and eased licensing restrictions to encourage medical volunteerism. Nevada National Guard Adjutant General Ondra Berry will have his hands full in the coming months. “I am asking the President and federal government to help Nevada respond and recover effectively and efficiently by providing federal assistance.” “The COVID-19 public health crisis in Nevada is of such severity and scale that the effective response is beyond the capabilities of the state, local and tribal governments, and supplementary federal assistance is needed to save lives, protect public health, and help Nevada recover from the incomprehensible economic impacts that have resulted from this global pandemic,” Sisolak said. People are dying every day in Nevada, and in every other state. We shouldn’t have to bid against our neighbors, to write off the elderly and medically fragile, to wait for a billionaire’s charity, or to beg for a handout. We should have federal leadership that works for us. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in Time, Readers Digest, The Daily Beast, Reuters, Ruralite and Desert Companion, among others.
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