Cuomo has explained over and over again that 30,000 ventilators may not ultimately be needed in New York State. All a responsible executive can do is listen to what the epidemiologists are saying, and then plan accordingly. He is using multiple models, one from Cornell; those models do projections based on current data. For example, if the rate continues to double and triple every day there would be a need at the apex of the curve for 30,000 ventilators. He is trying to do all that is possible to flatten the curve. The flatter the curve, the fewer ventilators that would be needed all at one time. Under no plan would 3,000 ventilators have been enough. So, he bought a few thousand, and the federal government gave him 4,000 more. There's no way he or anyone else can predict with precise accuracy how many will be needed. A good executive plans for the worst, not the best. If, at the end, all the measures that he put in place for social distancing flatten the curve really fast and they weren't needed, so sue him, as he said.
Second point: As Governor Cuomo explains here starting at 37:09, the Federal Government "doesn't have" 30,000 ventilators to give him should the need arise. Nobody has that kind of stockpile. There are "some" in the Federal stockpile, but far fewer than that, and the Feds have to think about the entire nation's needs. Obviously, Cuomo is the Governor of New York, and he has to advocate for the people of his state. His earlier solution was to propose for a "rolling stockpile", where the the federal government would send them to areas that are hotspots, and when that need subsided, they would go elsewhere. Given we now know Covid 19 patients stay on ventilators for up to 21 days I don't know if that's tenable any longer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt1kXnH4Qi8
My mother is not expendable...bring down the fear...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-u2u-YzYw8
[/