From The Epicenter: N.Y. Pays Sky-High Prices For Equipment; Lawmakers Worry About Malpractice Suits; Navy Hospital Ship Disappoints
New York state and New York City in particular have emerged as the epicenter of the outbreak in the country. The sharp rise in demand for medical equipment to deal with the crisis has forced state officials to pay about 15 times the usual price for some things. Meanwhile, state lawmakers want to protect doctors who are on the front lines of the pandemic from criminal suits.
ProPublica:
In Desperation, New York State Pays Up To 15 Times The Normal Prices For Medical Equipment
With the coronavirus outbreak creating an unprecedented demand for medical supplies and equipment, New York state has paid 20 cents for gloves that normally cost less than a nickel and as much as $7.50 each for masks, about 15 times the usual price. It’s paid up to $2,795 for infusion pumps, more than twice the regular rate. And $248,841 for a portable X-ray machine that typically sells for $30,000 to $80,000. This payment data, provided by state officials, shows just how much the shortage of key medical equipment is driving up prices. (DePillis and Song, 4/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
New York Moves To Shield Doctors From Lawsuits While Fighting Coronavirus
New York lawmakers are expected to approve a bill that would grant sweeping civil- and criminal-liability protections to hospitals and health care workers treating the surge of patients infected with the coronavirus. The statute largely lifts the threat of malpractice lawsuits at a time when New York hospitals are reeling from ventilator and protective-gear shortages and overcrowding that could force them to make wrenching choices about allocating lifesaving care. (Gershman and West, 4/2)
The New York Times:
USNS Comfort Hospital Ship Was Supposed To Aid New York. It Has 3 Patients.
Such were the expectations for the Navy hospital ship U.S.N.S. Comfort that when it chugged into New York Harbor this week, throngs of people, momentarily forgetting the strictures of social distancing, crammed together along Manhattan’s west side to catch a glimpse. On Thursday, though, the huge white vessel, which officials had promised would bring succor to a city on the brink, sat mostly empty, infuriating executives at local hospitals. The ship’s 1,000 beds are largely unused, its 1,200-member crew mostly idle. Only 20 patients had been transferred to the ship, officials said, even as New York hospitals struggled to find space for the thousands infected with the coronavirus. Another Navy hospital ship, the U.S.N.S. Mercy, docked in Los Angeles, has had a total of 15 patients, officials said. (Schwirtz, 4/2)
The New York Times:
Cuomo Emerges As ‘Trump Whisperer’ During Coronavirus Crisis
For Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, it should have been a softball question lobbed from a friendly source. The governor’s brother, Chris Cuomo, the CNN anchor, asked what he thought of President Trump’s repeated insinuation that health care workers in New York City were stealing medical supplies from hospitals by taking them “out the back door.” But Governor Cuomo did not take the bait.“It’s a very vague thing,” the governor said. “It went out the back door? I don’t know what that means.” (McKinley, 4/3)
ABC News:
NYC Surgeon Who Survived Ebola Responds To Trump Suggesting Masks, Coronavirus Supplies Are Being Stolen From City Hospitals
A surgeon who was the first person in New York City to be diagnosed with the Ebola virus in 2014 rejected President Donald Trump's claim that masks and other protective equipment intended for use in New York hospitals to fight the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, might have been stolen. Dr. Craig Spencer, the director of global health and emergency medicine at Columbia University Medical Center is on the frontline of the COVID-19 fight in New York City, which has been considered the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States. (Rosa, 4/2)
NBC News:
NYC First Responders Reeling From 'Unprecedented' Call Volume Amid Coronavirus
New York City first responders are handling "tremendously high" call volumes, working multiple double shifts with back-to-back cases and suspected coronavirus patients going into cardiac arrest as the disease continues to sweep the city. "Everybody's overworked. There're people who are working five doubles, five 16-hour tours," in one week, said a New York City Fire Department emergency medical technician who works in the Bronx. (Silva and Winter, 4/2)
ABC News:
The Last Coronavirus Holdout In New York: A Rural Upstate County Braces Itself
In the rural upstate New York, it takes up to two weeks to find out test results for the novel coronavirus. Personal protective equipment is sparse. And there's no medical facility with an intensive care unit. This is what officials in Seneca County are trying to remedy as their first COVID-19 case was diagnosed on Monday. (Carrega, 4/3)
Politico:
Trump Tangles With Schumer All Day Over Coronavirus Response
President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer clashed all day Thursday in media appearances, tweets and dueling letters over the federal government’s response to the coronavirus crisis. The tension reached a climax when Trump sent a letter to the New York Democrat, defending his administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. But letter also got personal, as the president accused the Democratic leader of getting caught up in the "impeachment hoax" and being "missing in action, except when it comes to the 'press." (Levine, 4/2)
The Hill:
Military Personnel To Handle Coronavirus Patients At Facilities In NYC, New Orleans And Dallas
Military personnel will begin treating coronavirus patients at new medical facilities that have popped up in the cities of New York, New Orleans and Dallas, the White House said Thursday, marking a shift in policy for how the Pentagon is aiding in the medical response to the pandemic. Vice President Pence said at a White House briefing on the virus that President Trump had directed the Department of Defense to use military personnel to operate facilities fully focused on coronavirus patients. (Samuels, 4/2)
The Hill:
De Blasio Calls For 'National Enlistment' Of Medical Personnel Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) on Thursday called for a “national enlistment of medical personnel” in the city, which has become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. “We need a national enlistment of medical personnel,” de Blasio said in a tweet to his followers. “Anyone with medical training that can be spared needs to come to the front. Today the front is NYC, but it will be all 50 states.” (Moreno, 4/2)
The New York Times:
Virus’s Toll On N.Y. Police: 1 In 6 Officers Is Out Sick
One out of every six New York City police officers is out sick or in quarantine. A veteran detective and seven civilian workers have died from the disease caused by the coronavirus. And two chiefs and the deputy commissioner in charge of counterterrorism are among more than 1,500 others in the department who have been infected. With weeks to go before the epidemic is expected to peak, the virus has already strained the Police Department at a time when its 36,000 officers have been asked to step up and help fight it by enforcing emergency rules intended to slow its spread. (Southall, 4/3)
The Associated Press:
'Surreal': NY Funeral Homes Struggle As Virus Deaths Surge
Pat Marmo walked among 20 or so deceased in the basement of his Brooklyn funeral home, his protective mask pulled down so his pleas could be heard. “Every person there, they’re not a body,” he said. “They’re a father, they’re a mother, they’re a grandmother. They’re not bodies. They’re people.” Like many funeral homes in New York and around the globe, Marmo’s business is in crisis as he tries to meet surging demand amid the coronavirus pandemic that has killed around 1,400 people in New York City alone, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University. (Seiner and Minchillo, 4/2)
CNN:
Chris Cuomo Shares Covid-19 Experience: 'The Beast Comes At Night'
CNN's Chris Cuomo has become the most visible face of the coronavirus in the United States by giving daily updates about his condition on TV, social media and, on Thursday, at his brother's New York state press briefing. Other television stars (Andy Cohen) and household names (Tom Hanks) have contracted the virus... there are more than I can list at this point... but Cuomo stands out because he is giving frequent updates to an audience of millions of people. (Stelter, 4/2)
The New York Times:
The Doctor Came To Save Lives. The Co-Op Board Told Him To Get Lost.
At the end of seven hours in mask, gown and gloves at Bellevue Hospital Center on Monday, Dr. Richard Levitan finally had a chance to look at his phone. Dr. Levitan, an emergency physician who lives in northern New Hampshire, had volunteered to work for 10 days at Bellevue, in Manhattan, as coronavirus patients besieged New York City hospitals. Monday was his first shift there. (Dwyer, 4/3)
