In a recent tweet, President Trump accused New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of withholding ventilators the federal government sent to assist patients dealing with COVID-19. After the president’s tweet, Governor Cuomo defended the decision to store the ventilators telling CNN that “the hospitals don’t need them yet”. Furthermore, the governor said the ventilators will be available when “you hit the apex, which is 30,000. We’re not there yet.”.
A video by Colleen Smith, an emergency room doctor exposing the situation in Elmhurst hospital, Queens, demonstrates a different story. Doctor Smith explains the hospital has reached its limit and is in need of more supplies. One of these supplies are ventilators, which are quickly being used to treat patients. The governor stated that these ventilators are being stored until hospitals reach their limit but why are hospitals such as Elmhurst not receiving a proper amount to help treat patients ?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/nyregion/nyc-coronavirus-hospitals.html
With over 40,000 confirmed cases and more than 700 deaths in the state of New York alone, New Yorkers will soon realize our true enemy is not the new coronavirus. Instead, the problem we must turn our attention to is the lack of transparency by our state government and find out if it’s true that they chose withhold supplies from hospitals which are in critical need. Likewise, I must remind our readers about one more thing, that is, right when President Trump tweeted about ventilators being hidden away, the governor proceeded to inform the public that our state government has and is holding onto extra ventilators until they see our hospitals reach their capacity.
