Advertisement
Canada markets open in 44 minutes
  • S&P/TSX

    22,107.08
    +194.56 (+0.89%)
     
  • S&P 500

    5,248.49
    +44.91 (+0.86%)
     
  • DOW

    39,760.08
    +477.75 (+1.22%)
     
  • CAD/USD

    0.7365
    -0.0007 (-0.10%)
     
  • CRUDE OIL

    82.68
    +1.33 (+1.63%)
     
  • Bitcoin CAD

    95,738.62
    +650.32 (+0.68%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • GOLD FUTURES

    2,227.50
    +14.80 (+0.67%)
     
  • RUSSELL 2000

    2,114.35
    +44.19 (+2.13%)
     
  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.2260
    +0.0300 (+0.71%)
     
  • NASDAQ futures

    18,488.50
    -15.25 (-0.08%)
     
  • VOLATILITY

    12.96
    +0.18 (+1.41%)
     
  • FTSE

    7,949.27
    +17.29 (+0.22%)
     
  • NIKKEI 225

    40,168.07
    -594.66 (-1.46%)
     
  • CAD/EUR

    0.6821
    +0.0016 (+0.24%)
     

Former Veterans Affairs Secretary weighs in on coronavirus pandemic

The Department of Veterans Affairs is set to become a back-up health system for those infected by COVID-19. Former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. David Shulkin joins Yahoo Finance’s Zack Guzman and Akiko Fujita on The Ticker to discuss.

Video Transcript

- Well, the Department of Veterans Affairs is getting ready to become a backup health system for those infected by the coronavirus. Joining us now to discuss is Dr. David Shulkin. He is a former Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Great to have you on today.

Let's talk first about the capacity concerns about some of these hospitals. We've been hearing that some, at least in places like Washington state, are already feeling overwhelmed. Can you help us understand how the Veterans Affairs can step in here to help alleviate some of that load?

ADVERTISEMENT

DAVID SHULKIN: Yeah, what we're seeing in terms of hospital capacity and the concern that we have for the health care system is very geographically specific. So we're already beginning to see hospitals in New York City and other regions seeing patients with COVID-19 and beginning to be admitted to their hospitals, where other hospitals around the country have not yet begun to see that type of surge.

The Department of Veteran Affairs is a unique health care system, the largest in the country. It has facilities in every part of the country and the largest number of doctors and nurses with the ability to serve as a backup function in national emergencies. And it is a system that trains and prepares for these types of emergencies. And we're fortunate that we have a number of individuals who are trained to be able to help assist in emergencies like this.

- Yeah and if it is kind of built to be that backup health care system, I mean, what kinds of things are you seeing right now that might be most worrisome in being able to serve in that function? Because we're already seeing hospitals that are here already kind of dealing with these stresses. It sounds like Governor Cuomo, if you listen to his address, there's not going to be enough ventilators for what he needs there. So I mean, if that's the backup system right now, but our first system's already getting overwhelmed. What's after the Veteran Affairs here, if that's to fall?

DAVID SHULKIN: The biggest challenges that we're seeing are going to be in staffing. And what we know about past pandemics is that up to about 35% of staff will experience the inability to work, either because they themselves are sick or because they're needed for family or people that they care for themselves. The Department of Veteran Affairs is already entering this pandemic with a staffing shortage of 49,000 people, so lots of vacancies.

And while I think that there are lots of capabilities that the system has, you can't make up that amount of staff vacancies, particularly when you enter a period where there could be high demand with a lot of staff absenteeism.

- So having said that, I mean, it sounds like the VA is already dealing with its own shortage. How do you see those services being integrated to the broader response right now from the federal government?

DAVID SHULKIN: This is what emergency preparedness is about. This is triaging your resources, taking people who are routinely doing other activities, and putting them to where the greatest patient needs are. So we're already seeing hospitals in New York City and around the region canceling all elective admissions, stopping elective surgeries, taking the staff that are available, making sure they're trained on the equipment, the protective equipment.

And they are respond to, in this pandemic, what is likely to be largely a respiratory illness, where people are going to need more intensive care services. So it's these days in the pre-planning that really are essential to determining how well our health care system can respond. And let me just say that I think what we need to see is a greater coordination between private sector, state, and federal efforts.

And we're seeing real leadership at the local levels beginning to coordinate that. And, of course, we're seeing the federal government's willingness to step in and to help where they can. But this type of coordination of resources really hasn't been seen in recent years. And so this is something that I think everyone's working hard on right now.

- You know, the president, or the administration, certainly taking a lot of criticism for its initial, for their initial, response to this. It seems like things are starting to come together. But what would you say in terms of the timeline, where we are in this phase, in the response phase, right now? Are we still just kind of in the first innings? And are we going to likely to see the integration increasingly over the next few weeks? Are we already starting to see that the capacity, I mean, you know, where do you think we are?

DAVID SHULKIN: I think that, as we heard just a little while ago in the press conference, that we still have a great deal of uncertainty about which epidemiologic curve we're likely to follow. But there's no doubt that we're still in the early innings here. If we take the curve that we've seen in Italy, and I think that that's the most concerning aggressive number of infections in terms of percent of the population. And when you do this type of planning, you really should be planning for the worst case scenario and hope for something much better.

But if we take that curve, I think that we're about 11 to 12 days behind what they're experiencing in Italy. Which would suggest, again if we follow that curve, that we're at about 4,500 infections now. We'd be going up to about 200,000 infections in the United States, patients who were infected in about a 30 day time period. So while we're beginning to see hospitals in certain regions of the country starting to see these patients, I think that we are likely to expect a much, much greater demand on our health care system throughout the country.

- Yeah, I mean and just to return to that question of kind of planning here. I know it's hard to predict these things and how they'll spread. But when we looked at Dr. Richard Stone, the Veterans Health Administration currently, said that he had not been contacted up until two days ago for trying to help here. So that's kind of alarming in terms of, if you are the backup option and that would be where the spillover would go, why that wouldn't have been tapped even as of two days ago.

If you're trying to address the flattening the curve here, are you surprised by that not happening, if we're talking about coordinating efforts?

DAVID SHULKIN: Yeah. I think what we've seen is is that people have been waiting for direction and to be told what to do. And of course, I think every day that's a missed opportunity. And this type of planning and coordination is going to cost people's lives. So I've been encouraging people, and it's been heartening to see the local officials and state officials step up.

I called for, several weeks ago, the Department of Veteran Affairs to be integral in this planning effort across the country. I've called for state and local officials to make proactive requests of our national stockpile to get the ventilators, some protective equipment that is available, out, distributed to the field. And I think that sitting back and waiting is going to end up being the biggest problem. So it's good to see that people are reaching out.

Because, frankly, I know in the Department of Veteran Affairs, there are people who train for this, who want to be helpful, who see this as part of their mission. Many of our federal agencies feel that way, too. And as we begin to start thinking about calling in the military and the Department of Defense, those are individuals that didn't think they'd ever be called up for this but are certainly going to want to step in and help their fellow citizens.

- OK. Dr. David Shulkin, a former VA Secretary, I appreciate you joining us today.

DAVID SHULKIN: Glad to be here.