... "Doctors at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis are performing invasive procedures on coronavirus patients with loose fitting surgical masks rather than the tight respirator masks recommended by health agencies. At a Los Angeles emergency room, doctors were given a box of expired masks, and when they tried to put them, the elastic bands snapped.

With coronavirus cases soaring, doctors, nurses and other front-line medical workers across the United States are confronting a dire shortage of masks, surgical gowns and eye gear to protect them from the virus. .....

“There’s absolutely no way to protect myself,” said Dr. Faezah A. Bux, an anesthesiologist in central Kentucky who in recent days had to intubate several elderly patients in respiratory distress without the respirator masks and protective eye gear recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Not only can I not protect myself, I can’t protect my patients.”

At a White House briefing on Thursday, President Trump said millions of masks were in production and that the federal government had made efforts to address the shortages, though he did not provide details. But he said it was largely up to governors to deal with the problem.

“The federal government’s not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping,” Mr. Trump said. “You know, we’re not a shipping clerk.”

The president also said there were no immediate plans to address medical equipment shortages by activating the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law that authorizes presidents to take extraordinary action to force American industry to ramp up production of equipment needed for national security.

“We hope we are not going to need it,” he said."

The president’s optimistic statements contrasted starkly with the situation on the ground, particularly in Washington and New York, the states with the largest number of coronavirus cases.

NYT

Trump will crash our hospital and medical care system before this is over, and blame anything or anybody else for  his despicable behavior, lies and inaction.

A national emergency requires leadership only the President and his administration can provide. His only objective is to praise himself, deny responsibility and use "Chinese" virus racist diversions to distract from his and his administrations incompetence.

When the body count increases to thousands, Trump will say something like:

“This is tragic and Melania and I mourn for the families.  Many of the families told me their loved one was very sick before the Chinese virus, very ill, very bad, very very bad, with underlying conditions that made life miserable, so in a sense they are now relieved of all the heartache, and they thanked me for the great job I have done and are moving on like we all should, particularly the news media and the do nothing Democrats who have crashed the economy.”

back on topic, new updated stats: