The NYT’s is a joke of a paper, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it gets it all wrong, time and again, (as well as spreading propaganda)…
The New York Times writes that Finland is not worried about the availability of masks. On the same day, Yle says that the union receives hundreds of contacts every day about the lack of masks in care facilities. A fitting example of the reality-image produced by the media about us and others. […] Positive visibility is manna for the national self-image, but it cannot go beyond the facts.
This is the reason for the article, the NYT is still in awe of the Finnish (Marxist orientated) ‘Feminist government’, and tries to chip away at the Trump Admin for the shortages of medical supplies. It fails to mention once about the Obama admins’ role in depleting the US’s own stockpile of medical goods, which is revealing in itself.
– “As officials in other countries like the United States lament the shortage of masks, ventilators and gowns and the global coronavirus cases increased to more than 1.2 million by Sunday, with more than 64,000 deaths, tales abound of international skulduggery and domestic price gouging. Nations are competing for medical supplies and racing to create a vaccine.”
They are hamstering facemasks/medical supplies here in Finland as well. Just today in the IS (major tabloid):
– The lack of protective equipment became such a big problem already after two weeks of the pandemic that the doors of the state emergency warehouses had to be opened, says Lasse Lehtonen, HUS’s director of diagnostics.
– Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Finnish government has emphasized Finland’s good preparedness for crisis situations. On a practical level, however, the lack of protective equipment already formed after two weeks of a pandemic as a major problem that the state of emergency stocks the doors had to open up the supply of equipment to hospitals, the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa diagnostic Director Lasse Lehtonen says…
According to Lehtonen, the government has not provided information on the required amounts. He estimates that more than 300,000 people work in the social and health sector in Finland. During the projected 4-6 month epidemic, at least 120-180 million surgical masks would be needed for those personnel.
[…]
According to Lehtonen, the availability of sufficient high-level respirators and protective jackets is critical to the operation of intensive care units for coronary patients, and it is not possible to increase the number of intensive care units to the level of 1,000 promised by the Minister of Family and Basic Services without adequate protective equipment.
Finland, ‘Prepper Nation of the Nordics,’ Isn’t Worried About Masks
Unlike their neighbors, the Finns never stopped stockpiling after the Cold War. Now Finland sits on an enviable supply of medical and survival gear in the Covid-19 era.
When the coronavirus hit, the Finnish government tapped into its supply of medical equipment for the first time since World War II.
“Finland is the prepper nation of the Nordics, always ready for a major catastrophe or a World War III,” said Magnus Hakenstad, a scholar at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies.
Though year after year Finland has ranked high on the list of happiest nations, its location and historical lessons have taught the nation of 5.5 million to prepare for the worst, Tomi Lounema, the chief executive of Finland’s National Emergency Supply Agency, said on Saturday.
“It’s in the Finnish people’s DNA to be prepared,” Mr. Lounema said, referring to his country’s proximity to Russia, its eastern neighbor. (Finland fought off a Soviet invasion in 1939.)
In addition, most of its trade goes through the Baltic Sea. That, Mr. Lounema said, is considered a vulnerability because, unlike Sweden, which has direct access to the North Sea on its west coast, Finland has to rely on the security conditions and the running of maritime traffic in the Baltic.
“If there is some kind of crisis, there might be some disturbance” in the supply chain, he explained.
Two weeks ago, as the country’s coronavirus cases ticked up — by Sunday, the country had recorded more than 1,880 cases and 25 deaths — the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health ordered that stored masks be sent to hospitals around the country.
“The masks are old — but they are still functioning,” Mr. Lounema said by phone.
There is little publicly available information on the number of masks and other supplies that Finland has or where exactly they are stored.
“All information considering those warehouses is classified,” Mr. Lounema said.
But though details are kept a state secret, the authorities confirmed that the stockpiles are kept in a network of facilities spread across the country and that the current system has been in place since the 1950s.
That has placed Finland in a more solid position to confront the pandemic.
As officials in other countries like the United States lament the shortage of masks, ventilators and gowns and the global coronavirus cases increased to more than 1.2 million by Sunday, with more than 64,000 deaths, tales abound of international skulduggery and domestic price gouging. Nations are competing for medical supplies and racing to create a vaccine.
