Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

If they could do it in time. But now they are already a month behind in rent.

They seem to have figured it out with the Payroll loan. Apply now, get fast tracked, and they'll do the bookkeeping on the backend to catch the swindlers. As long as you dont screw the system and keep your employees on payroll it will be laid back.

 

Here's the full text (Guy Gordon @newsGuy760):

On Friday, the President insinuated General Motors was acting un-patriotically, and was attempting to profiteer from the shortage of life-sustaining ventilators. He invoked the Defense Production Act, ordering them to produce the ventilators. But GM was already far ahead of any other company in moving forward and had in fact made the commitment to produce the ventilators “at cost” with Ventec, a leading ventilator provider.

Here are the facts:

Wednesday 3/18: GM Chairperson Mary Barra reaches out to White House Chief Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow and offers GM’s manufacturing and engineering capacity to fulfill the need for medical supplies. (Source: Axios, GM and White House)

Friday 3/20 GM and Ventec, a ventilator manufacturer from the Seattle area, announce they are undertaking a feasibility project to determine whether they can jointly initiate rapidly expanded production. (GM and Ventec joint release)

By Monday 3/23 GM and Ventec not only prove feasibility, but designate GM’s former electronics facility in Kokomo, Ind. as the “clean” facility for production. The UAW is asked to begin recruiting volunteers. It’s a labor intensive project and may need as many as 1,000 workers. GM’s purchasing chief informs Barra he has commitments from nearly all the suppliers needed for 700 components. He is confident the remaining 37 components can be sourced. (GM, Axios and Reuters)

Tuesday 3/24 Axios and Reuters report GM’s incredible progress. Ventec is told to anticipate an announcement from the White House about the impending contract. Ventec is ready to go but has still not received direction from the feds on how many ventilators it is ordering, making cost quotes per unit more difficult to estimate.

Wednesday 3/25 Without explanation the White House cancels the announcement and Ventec is told there will be no contract. Late that evening Ventec and GM agree to move forward anyway. GM agrees to help clear Ventec’s 20,000 unit back-order at cost. Essentially they agree to build a decade’s worth of ventilators in less than 2 months.

Thursday 3/26. NYT reports White House balks because they are trying to decide between different vendors who they believe can offer lower cost options. Ventec and GM prepare to announce their formal production agreement on Friday.

Friday 3/27 President threatens in 2 tweets to invoke “P” (Defense Production Act) against GM. Suggests they should build ventilators at Lordstown, a plant the White House knows GM no longer owns. They are also aware a much more practical electronics plant was chosen for production. He also insults Mary Barra who made the initial offer with prompting from no one.
Within 90 minutes, Ventec and GM announce their plans for production. They have hired 1,000 workers, a full shift, and have the sourcing to make 200,000 ventilators. They have printed training manuals and intend to start training in the new work week. All of these plans and progress occur well before any implied or actual threat from President Trump.

Friday Evening: The President announces he is invoking the Defense Production Act. It will not get things built any faster, but does eliminate the red tape normally associated with government contracting.

His new procurement czar Peter Navarro suggests many “patriotic” companies had come forward, but they hit a roadblock with GM. The President says, “we won’t pay double or triple for ventilators.” Yet GM and Ventec were producing them at cost. Throughout the briefing it’s implied they had difficult discussions with GM. In fact, Ventec is the primary contractor and handled all interaction beyond Barra’s original offer. When asked in opening Q and A whether cost and profit were a factor, the President was very candid. He doesn’t like GM.

President: “It got to be a debate over cost. We don’t want to think too much about cost when we’re talking about this. This is not about cost. I WASN’T HAPPY WHERE GENERAL MOTORS BUILT PLANTS IN OTHER LOCATIONS (MEXICO) OVER THE YEARS. ….. AND SO I DIDN’T GO INTO IT WITH A VERY FAVORABLE VIEW. I WAS EXTREMELY UNHAPPY WITH LORDSTOWN OHIO. THEY LEFT LORDSTOWN IN THE MIDDLE OF AN AUTO BOOM (in fact, sales of sedans produced at Lordstown were crashing). BECAUSE WE HAD 17 CAR COMPANIES COMING IN (?) AND THEN THEY WERE LEAVING ONE PLANT IN OHIO. I LOVE OHIO AND WHAT HAPPENS, THAT BECAME THE STORY.

AND FRANKLY I THINK THAT WOULD BE A GOOD PLACE TO BUILD THE VENTILATORS. AND WE’LL SEE, WE’LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS.

SO I WASN’T TOO THRILLED.

“And then we thought we had a deal for 40,000 ventilators and then it became 6 and price became a big object. But Peter is getting involved… maybe they’ll change their tune.”

Sadly, the tune has always been the same. GM offered to help and in less than 10 days moved heaven and earth to find a location, hire a workforce, source a 700-part piece of technology, spec it out for suppliers and set employee training in motion. All of this to be delivered at cost, a cost that could have been pinned down better had the Government instructed how many they needed.
Maximum production for Ventec is 200 ventilators per month. GM was offering to build 100 times that many in a matter of a few months… needing less than a month for re-tooling and training. That is nothing short of incredible. Their thanks was a politically motivated shaming in a nationally televised White House briefing. GM was patriotic. GM was All-American. They will not profit. In fact, they may lose business because of the President’s diatribe. I wonder how many other companies are re-thinking their willingness to step up as a result.
But on Monday, GM will start making masks in Warren and begin training in Kokomo.

 

I get in trouble when I'm more descriptive.

 

obviously ny/nj now is a lost cause. what is going to be interesting is how the numbers look from chicago,detroit, dallas, miami, los angeles. they and the rest of the state they are in had a 2 to 3 week look at ny/nj. we will get a good idea how well socia mandatory lockdown is really going to work, lets hope it does.ldistancing,shelter in place,

 

My fiancee called our lender. They said they defer payments for 6 months. On the 7th month all 6 months are due at once.

They had an attorney on monsters in the morning discussing this today. One of the members of the show said the same thing only 3 months after which all was due. Everyone agreed that does nothing to help when one loses work....

So what is the real story?

 

Some of the daily case increase may be from results coming in from those tests done previously that took 5-6 days to get the results.

A very good article on the overall vaccine process. Moderna is very interesting with their synthetic mRNA. Another company that has a real shot to come up with something quickly is Regeneron with their VelociSuite technology which uses genetically engineered mice to create human monoclonal antibodies. In 2017, Health and Human Services (HHS) signed an agreement with Regeneron to discover, research, develop, and manufacture antibodies targeting up to 10 pathogens. On Feb 4th, they amended the agreement to include COVID-19. And BARDA (Division of HHS) will cover 80% of the research and development (R&D) and manufacturing costs for Regeneron thus money will not be an issue.
On March 4, Regeneron CEO Leonard Schleifer said it would have 200,000 doses ready for human patients by the summer.

I had previously heard that there were actually over 80 human clinical trials ongoing already with most of them in China at this time. Fingers crossed the vaccine comes long before the middle of 2021.

 

I called Wells Fargo directly. They told me that they were simply deferring 3 months of payments and extending loans on the back end by 3 months. Said they had no idea what to do officially because they have no direction from the government. Seems like free money so I’m tempted. I’m employed but all executives took massive pay cuts and survival isn’t certain on 90 days of limited revenue.

 

Screw the man and apparently you’re the man. No, you make a good point because nothing is obviously free. Even the big company who rents to my brother which I said I wouldn’t pay has employees to pay etc. No good solutions

 

So it sounds like companies will still manage this on their own terms despite whatever interventions by the federal government to help? Or is it as you were told that the government hasn't really done anything yet despite reports ?

 

Well our population is three times the size of them combined

 

i work for the postal service in gainesville.people do not realize how many people use the mail to pay their mortgage,rent,car payment,utility bill,cable tvbill,credit cards,etc.allowing months to go on w/o payment is crippaling to the USPS, and i do not want to hear any snailmail jokes, remember how much medicine and social security checks, for example, go through the mail,

 

Some people who have rentals also have mortgages on those rentals. It could get very dicey if the mortgage companies are not willing to work with

I wonder how people are supposed to pay the back months if they go back to work. That sounds like a company with idiots running it.

 

America (business) First! Americans, stand in line

 

FIFY

 

I totally get where you are coming from. Hopefully those that can afford it will shell out the few bucks to subscribe and those that can't will use my trick to still get quality content and stay up to date with this situation. No hard feelings at all.

 

Yes. Thats why I was surprised to here city say he was offered a different option than we were. What good does it do to defer payment only to require all missed payments in lump at the end of deferment and not the back end of the loan? Sounds like a half assed attempt at a PR move to look like they are trying to help their clients on the surface.

 

YES! @wygator is one of our great posters.

 

Gov. Cuomo boldly say's "if you are on a ventilator for an extended length of time you probably will not live". Only 20 percent will survive? I really liked him up to that point. What was his desired goal in announcing to everyone that if you or your family member uses these great ventilators that we are fighting over that you will not live? Can you imagine being rushed to the hospital, the family members hoping for the best, then all of a sudden the doctor says "we need to put him on the ventilator (Begin the morbid music) now." and then dark clouds roll down into the ICU as they fire up the non effective Ebay purchased ventilators.
But at least Cuomo is leading. Florida has the great leader Desantis. The man that wasted little time announcing that his leadership style was completely dependent on Trump. Oh and how intelligent of the governor...I demand that all of you stay in your homes except for the ones that can't pray to their God in their homes and must go to a building with others so they can play roulette with their lives. Just incredible leadership.

But Desantis, as the devoted student of Trump has so much to learn from the forever self indulgent President of the United States of America. 100000 to 200000 are going to die, he says, and that is far less important than that 90 cent per gallon gasoline coming soon, it is truly like a tax break! He proudly proclaims during these dark days that when the worst is over that the economy is going to be the greatest has ever been. I for one am in a celebratory way after seeing his press conference/political b.s/coronavirus tidbit meeting.

Yes America...these are the leaders. These are your super heroes. Great job!

 

He's about one week late, imo. I'm sure the tourism/service industries made it a difficult decision, but I don't understand why one of the most populated states was nearly last in line.

 

Florida’s mandatory lockdown appears to have a lot of waivers.