Rather useless?

April 7th

ABC News

Coronavirus update: Another death linked to Ruby Princess cruise ship

The death of a man in Tasmania is the 14th from the coronavirus-plagued Ruby Princess cruise ship, the US death toll hits 10,000, and the NSW Premier says social distancing is here to stay until there is a vaccine.

Read more from ABC News

Whatever.

The reason Italy's coronavirus death toll is going down is because:  Italy has about run out of Old people.  In some (MANY?) cases the old coronavirus patients have been ignored to death.  When the death toll began showing doctors/nurses etc., included in the daily numbers Something/Someone had 2 take the bull by the horns and say ENOUGH!  Let them die.  

And that's what we in America will do if Push comes to Shove.  Already the 'appropriate' memos R surfacing regarding taking the Italian Approach.  

 Singapore like China is accustomed to wearing those white masks...usually done out of concern for possibly spreading germs.  When asked to socially distance they listen. When asked to take precautions they do it.  The Asian culture does NOT hug or grab at one another.  It prefers to Bow the head in acknowledgement.  

Americans bega to HUG when videos showed Europeans doing that or doing quick cheek kisses - even the leaders did that.

The FDA-approved drug Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is being tried out by doctors/coronavirus patients/families who R being told about the risks involved.  People who have kidney/liver/heart issues R probably not going to take part.  HCQ is a malaria/lupus drug which is being used very successfully.  People R clamoring for the pills...prescriptions R necessary.  

Since most people form an opinion based solely on an article's headline, I've copied the mitigating paragraphs for clarification.  I KNOW you read the entire article.

For example, the Washington Post reported on March 10 that the reserves of the N95 respirator masks were not “significantly restored” after tens of millions of the devices were distributed from the stockpile during the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009. Medical personnel wear the respirators because they can “filter out at least 95% of airborne particles,” according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Greg Burel, who was the director of the Strategic National Stockpile for more than 12 years until he retired in January, recently told CBS News: “We didn’t receive funds to replace those masks, protective gear and the anti-virals that we used for H1N1.” 

He told Vice News that he decided to use the program’s limited funding to instead purchase vaccines, flu medications and other pharmaceuticals.

New York Times, March 29: Thirteen years ago, a group of U.S. public health officials came up with a plan to address what they regarded as one of the medical system’s crucial vulnerabilities: a shortage of ventilators.

The breathing-assistance machines tended to be bulky, expensive and limited in number. The plan was to build a large fleet of inexpensive portable devices to deploy in a flu pandemic or another crisis.

Money was budgeted. A federal contract was signed. Work got underway.

And then things suddenly veered off course. A multibillion-dollar maker of medical devices bought the small California company that had been hired to design the new machines. The project ultimately produced zero ventilators.

That failure delayed the development of an affordable ventilator by at least half a decade, depriving hospitals, states and the federal government of the ability to stock up. The federal government started over with another company in 2014, whose ventilator was approved only last year and whose products have not yet been delivered.

On CNN’s “State of the Union” on March 15, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that there were 12,700 ventilators in the stockpile. At the time, there were 3,487 cases of COVID-19 in the U.S, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of April 2, there were 239,279 reported cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. In a task force press briefing that same day, Rear Adm. John Polowczyk said that the U.S. has delivered more than 7,600 ventilators to the states, and still has some in reserve.

She is right. That is what they did inWWII ; also Many of those stockpile items also have a datelimit on them and will not keep forever.

take care my dear.