Letter: What is an essential business?
There are roughly 5,198 hospitals in the United States offering 71,000 ICU Beds. 200,000 people are projected to die from this virus, All of them will eventually get to an ICU bed. Those that will live and not require an ICU bed will need a hospital bed to recover in. There are roughly 792,000 non-ICU hospital beds nationwide. COVID-19 models show that 2,000,000 people will need to be hospitalized and isolated. The US must triple the number of hospital beds immediately. Every ICU bed and hospital bed requires administrative support, IT support, Pharma support, etc., etc. The United States is roughly trying to triple the number of hospital beds it has in 30-120 days, starting 30 days ago.
Dubois County, Western Michigan and North Carolina are the largest suppliers of commercial furniture in the United States. Just like medical supplies that are now completely made in China, so is much of our medical furnishings. We can’t wait 12 weeks or longer for product to arrive from China if it arrives at all. Hospital procurement people are frantically looking for supplies and furnishings. These procurement people sit at desks and use computers to find products from all over the US. Hospitals on the front lines of COVID-19 are hiring not only healthcare professionals but admin support and IT support.
Hospitals are looking for patient room stools, chairs, examining tables, hospital rooms. When you arrive at the screening center in Jasper, you will notice the reception/check-in center has desks and chairs. The nurses and doctors have conference rooms to discuss the status of this disease. This will be replicated throughout most of the counties in the United States.
Trust me when I say that if these factories are open, it is because they are working to help save lives. They are supporting hospitals in NY, CA, NJ, CT, MI, OH and yes Indiana. I do not work for a company in Dubious County but I too am in the industry and the company I work for just across the Michigan border is slammed with requests for doctors stools. We use to sell maybe 25 a week. We are getting requests for 200 a week for the next several weeks and that is just to support 8 hospitals. With non-essential business shut down, very few if any are ordering office furniture. Office furniture dealers are packaging several manufactures together in health care packages to their local hospitals. Sure Dubious County factories are still open because they are working to save lives.
Jasper Engine and Ariens supply crucial parts to keep trucks and equipment running. Hospitals just received $150B to order what they need and trucking companies and drivers are needed to deliver all of the goods they need to save lives. Hoarding has caused truck drivers to work longer hours to resupply our grocery shelves.
Remember 160 other countries are looking for the same things our hospitals are. They too will need desperate food supplies and are looking to the US to aid them. Hopefully you’re getting the big picture. This is a global pandemic.
When people say this is just like World War II, they aren’t far off. 160 countries are battling the same things as the U.S. If you can stay home, stay home. But if you’re asked to participate by building products that will save lives, then like WW II, get in the fight. If our parents and grandparents had stayed home during WW II, we would no longer be the United State of America.
When this is all over, there will be some 3rd world countries who will be decimated.
https://www.aha.org/statistics/fast-facts-us-hospitals
Daryl Hensley, Jasper
Daryl,I agree to some extent on what you’re saying.The US needs more hospital beds, ventilators,gloves, masks, hospital gowns and more sanitation products. Believe you me If I was a doctor, nurse, tech worker or any hospital worker I would not be worried about furniture. I would be more concerned about saving lives!I have nothing but praise and thanks for all the healthcare workers putting their lives at risk.Sometimes essential things become non-essential.
trucks keep the supply lines flowing. this keeps people alive. trucks – essential.
nobody will die if a doctor has to stand instead of sit. stools – non essential.
but people *will* die because they had to go build stools.
Very true James. Daryl obviously doesn’t know what “essential” means. It’s just insane. Jasper engines is critical to keep trucking running? Sure maybe if the “stay at home” was 6 months or longer, I’d buy that. But these factories are too stubborn to close even 1 day. Let alone 6 weeks. In my opinion closing 6 weeks would make everything bounce back in 6 months or so. But they’ll stay open. People will get sick. Some might even die. And in my opinion jobs/income will suffer more doing it the way Dubois County is doing it now.
We shall see. But these factories are really taking a risk. Maybe it will pay off. Maybe it won’t. I’d hate to be in senior management at one of these companies when it all turns bad.
The real question is : If people stay home but yet wonder through Walmart and grocery stores and gas stations and the like, is it really safer than going to work ?
Fred,
There are a couple of differences between getting ESSENTIAL items, like food and gasoline and going to work at a non-essential wood factory.
People need to buy food to eat. So they must go to walmart or Holiday Foods. People do not need to be forced to go to work to sand desks. also a work shift lasts 8 hours. a trip to the store should take an hour.
The reason is Jasper Memorial Hospital has a limited about of beds. If everyone is sick at the same time then JMS will overflow with patients, just like in NYC.
I feel like I am beating a dead horse, because most of the factories in Ferdinand and Japser are still open. Memorial Hospital should be upset with the furniture makers for staying open. What if, per capita, Dubois County has the same # of infections as NYC?
You ever worked at a factory where people were able to work 6 feet apart? Its only going to take one to become sick and this virus will spread like wild fire! Masterbrand offers employees two weeks off but without pay. Some people can’t afford this.But like I said, it’s two weeks without pay or thousands of dollars in medical bills or even funeral expenses.
What is an essential business? Unlike the poppycock of this letter defending the undefendable, it’s whatever the selective minds of the powers that be (the VIP factory owners in collaboration with the governor and possibly the health dept) want it to be – and that’s the truth! It’s crazy that small, 1-person retails have to close and maybe not come back, while hundreds of people in respective factories can to come/go, day-in and day-out, working, eating, coughing/sneezing, et al, right next to each other because of selective and wantonly risky interpretation($) of “essential.”
My daughter works at I U Methodist hospital in Indianapolis which is overwhelmed right now with Covid-19 patients. I asked her if these furniture supplies are needed and she just laughed and asked if I was joking. She said furniture is the last thing they are worried about.
Also, my wife works in a factory and said there is no reason for them to be open. Factories in Dubois County will not close because they do not want to pay for unemployment claims. Local factories are not concerned about their employees, they are only worried about profit and their stock holders.
Tony
So much for the governor, the local health dept and Hensley…the latter/letter not mattering but for amusement. And as have indicated before, we haven’t heard a word from these owners to defend or justify the direct or even supportive-direct “essentials” of their ops, and we all know why (not).
Tony,
Kudos to your daughter and all of her coworkers for being there in the trenches. You certainly hit the nail on the head concerning the factories in the area. Wishing good health and safety to you, your wife and your precious daughter.
As an employee of a hospital furniture is not needed unless your factory name is Hill-Rom! Hospitals are not allowing visitors and volunteer and non essential staff have been released. There is no shortage of furniture that isn’t being used. Greed will continue to put society at risk.
Yes some of these factories should close but are not…my main concern is why are insurance agents still open ? Can’t you call or go online to make a payment or make a claim?? Insurance agents are NOT essential!!