Given that fact, let's say you still have 2,000 ventilators in storage that could be shipped out to states that are requesting them. You also know that there are states what have a growing population of ill people for whom you may not have sent any ventilators to -- to date. The situation being you have people very ill in hospital ICU rooms right now who will die without a ventilator and you have them in a box, stored.
What do you do? For me, I'd hold some in reserve for those states that will need the ventilators and who have not received any as of now. You have to accept the fact that you gave what you had to give, early in the disease outbreak to states like New York and there will be urgent requests in the days ahead for critically ill people in Louisiana, Colorado, Michigan, Illinois, etc.
The projections for the ramp-up in manufacturing of ventilators is around a month, with full production not coming until well into May. It is an example for why there is the phrase, "timely decision-making." An earlier decision to gear up the production of ventilators might have meant that new manufactured ventilators would just now be flooding into warehouses and ready to be shipped. But, that is not the happy ending to this story.
When the after-action report is written on this event, I suggest the title to be, "Too Little, Too Late."
