As mentioned, I've been part of numerous tabletop exercises. I've sat on emergency preparedness committees. This is way above my pay grade, but I cannot make
sense of it:
Two HHS officials — Darcie Johnston, director of intergovernmental affairs, and Kevin Yeskey, principal deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response — said in a Feb. 23 meeting with local officials that the patients would be flown from California to the Fort McClellan Army Airfield in Anniston, according to multiple local officials.
The airfield was closed when the Army base was shuttered in 1999. Local officials said they told the HHS officials during the meeting the runway was in bad shape.
This sounds like someone at HHS randomly (?) selecting a site without checking current site status. Want more?
The HHS plan also called for housing coronavirus patients at the Center for Domestic Preparedness, a FEMA facility on the old Army base and one of several redevelopment projects at the sprawling outpost.
...
The dorms normally house emergency responders from around the country.
But the center doesn’t have any special capabilities for handling infectious diseases, local officials said. The center is used for training. It has isolation hospital rooms — located in a former Army hospital building — but they are mostly just props, with fake equipment and light switches that exist only as paint on walls.
Meanwhile, federal officials never contacted the town’s hospital, Regional Medical Center, about handling covid-19 patients, said Louis Bass, the hospital’s chief executive.
Again, to me this sounds like federal agency that has been caught with its pants down and is scrambling to do something.
This week is going to be great. Buckle up.