Donald Trump, the 73-year-old New York City native and billionaire businessman, recently shared the scariest day of his life with the public.
Last month, he was informed of the shortage of ventilators required for coronavirus patients in the United States, which he described as his “scariest day.”
“The scariest day of my life was about a month ago when, after a long day of meetings, my team told me that we were going to be needing 130,000 ventilators, that we were short hundreds of thousands of ventilators,” President Trump revealed during a White House coronavirus briefing.
Trump also mentioned that his administration plans to establish a federal ventilator reserve to prepare for potential future pandemics.
Under the public-private partnership known as the Dynamic Ventilator Reserve, the U.S. aims to produce around 200,000 ventilators by the end of the year.
He attributed the shortage to previous administrations, criticizing some governors for requesting what he deemed as “unreasonable” numbers of ventilators from the federal stockpile.
Furthermore, Trump discussed the Defense Production Act, which was signed into law last month, as a crucial tool to compel private companies, including General Motors, to prioritize ventilator production.
He highlighted the significant increase in ventilator manufacturing, stating, “Last year, America manufactured 30,000 ventilators from a standstill. This year, the number will be over 150,000 ventilators, it could be as high as 200,000 — far more than we will ever need.”
Trump expressed confidence in the ability to build a sufficient ventilator stockpile and collaborate with states to ensure adequate reserves.