President Trump, asked Friday if he can assure New Yorkers they will have an adequate number of ventilators, blatantly said “no” and reiterated his criticism of the state’s preparedness for the coronavirus pandemic.
“They should’ve had more ventilators at the time. They should’ve had more ventilators,” he said. “They were totally under-serviced. We are trying to do—we are doing our best for New York. You know, we have states, we have a lot of states—we have territories too—but we have a lot of states that have to be taken care of. Some much more so than others.”
“We happen to think that [New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s] well-served with ventilators. We’re gonna find out,” he said. Cuomo had warned earlier this week that the state is less than a week away from running out of ventilators. COVID-19 infections patients’ respiratory tracts, and those with severe cases require ventilators to assist with breathing.