California, Oregon and Washington announce western states pact

Re:California, Oregon and Washington announce western states... by standardUser on Monday April 13, 2020 @05:56PM (#22860591)

Have you been following the coverage? There are a lot of mixed messages (opening the economy by Easter, no I mean May, no I mean ASAP), lots of misinformation that contradicts the medical consensus (Trump pushing hydroxychloroquine as if he's the drug's spokesperson), a lot of half actions (Trump invokes Defense Production Act, but then refuses to use it), and blatant lies ("anyone who wants a test can get one"), multiple task forces being set up with vague responsibilities (first Pence, then Kushner).

The unwillingness to call for a nationwide lockdown is also a big one that has angered a lot of governors. And just today Trump tweeted that he has the authority to end lockdowns, which is a blatant lie.

So yeah, the response hasn't been great.

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Re:California, Oregon and Washington announce western states... by jschwartzi on Monday April 13, 2020 @06:20PM (#22860827)

Trump actually did use the DPA to order GM to produce medical ventilators. Because a car company will have no problem retooling all of their factories to pump out medical devices. I believe that just taught all the CEOs of companies like GM that they shouldn't offer to do a damn thing publicly before they've already got a program in place.

This is as opposed to ordering one of the several companies in the US who already make medical ventilators to simply make more ventilators.

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