35 million / 3.5 billion = 10%?
According to the US consumer news and business channel (CNBC), the US Department of health and public service (HHS) clarified a figure on 4 th: if COVID-19 broke out in the United States, the country's respirator inventory can only meet the needs of about 1% professional medical personnel, and the Assistant Minister of the Department of Kadlec Robert Kadlec said that the proportion was 10% in the hearing.
However, as assistant secretary of health and human services, how could carderetz get such an important figure wrong?
It turned out that this was a math problem that was miscalculated on the spot. Here's the thing:
On the 3rd, kadletz testified before the US Senate Health Committee, Republican Senator mitt & middot; Romney (Mitt Romney) raised this question to him. If COVID-19 broke out in the United States, what percentage of respirators needed by medical staff now?
"What novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic situation is like," Kadlec replied, "I can give you a rough data, sir. To what extent, we need only 10% of the outbreak. If the epidemic becomes serious, we will need 3.5 billion N95 masks, and our current reserve is 35 million. "
Hearing this figure, Romney then said, 'well, so it's about 10%.'
Kadletz nodded and answered, '10%, we are actively dealing with this situation.'
35 million / 3.5 billion = 10%? Here, they both miscalculated.
After the hearing, CNBC immediately contacted the U.S. Department of health and human services. The Department said that if COVID-19 broke out in the United States, the US health system would need about 3 billion 500 million N95 masks, and about 12 million N95 masks and 30 million surgical masks in the US strategic national reserve. Therefore, the current total inventory of masks is only 1.2% of the demand during the outbreak period.
The spokesman said that the U.S. Department of health and human services plans to buy 500 million N95 masks and surgical masks in the next 18 months.
However, the observer network noted that according to the latest clarification of the U.S. health and public services, the inventory of N95 masks in the country is only 12 million. Calculated according to the 3.5 billion N95 masks required by medical staff in the U.S. outbreak, the inventory of these N95 masks is only 0.34% of the demand during the outbreak.
Novel coronavirus pneumonia confirmed to be 158 cases in the United States as of 9 hours local time 4, 49 of which were from overseas Chinese, CNN reported (CNN). In the United States, 109 cases were confirmed in 14 states.
It was previously reported that the number of confirmed cases in various states has become yes and no on the official website of the CDC
Source: observer network