Does this construction look like a hospital to you?? Each room has windows but with metal railing and has a door but can only be opened from the outside. In addition, it is managed by the military. Whatever happen in this place will not be known to the public!
7
This is not a hospital, it is a quarantine facility. Search online for videos of the inside. Small holding cells, tiny windows, few exit doors. The story clearly states "according to State news outlets." That should create the appropriate filter for understanding.
7
Imagine building an adequate diverting water from the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon to satisfy the agricultural needs of California? I heard this debate 30 years ago and as recent as California last drought a few years ago. I often said, if this was China the water problems of California would have been solved decades ago. We often get in our own way to to the detriment of our well being.
5
I see many readers writing in to say "we could do this in America if we just dispensed with cost, safety, and environmental considerations, but because we are superior to the Chinese, we choose not to do so."
We do the same thing (use authoritarian rule to push massive projects to completion), but our goal is not high speed rail or hospitals, but mass destruction; we don't have the best hospitals or schools or railroads in the world, but by gum! we have the best killing machines ever.
7
Meanwhile, a flyover construction in my neighborhood(Chennai,India) was started,when i was married and i have a kid now who has started going to preschool.
3
Chinese have amazing work ethics, willing to work long hours. They have a strong sense of duty, cooperativeness and respect for hierarchy. It is not surprising that China could pull together so quickly to build a hospital to house 1,000 patients. China built the Great Wall so many hundreds of years ago with just manual labor so large that astrounauts could see it from space. On the other hand, Chinese government's tendency for secrecy leads to repeated viral epidemics. China has a lot to learn from this lesson. First and foremost is improve the hygene in food handling, as well as ban wild animal slaughter for food consumption. The accolades and admiration about the speed in building this hospital belong to the planners of the project and the workers.
7
Its a great effort for fighting such a large scale epidemic. China's mobilization of such large scale construction projects is definitely advanced than so many other countries, instead of debating whether dictatorship is good or democracy is good, we shall all appreciate its preparedness.
3
So if they can build these hospitals, why couldn't they staff, supply and equip the existing hospitals in Wuhan? A truly functioning hospital is so much more than the structure it occupies. if they could not staff, supply and equip the hospitals that they already have, why should we believe that these show places will be any different? Remember China is the same country that arrested the scientist that reported the emergence of this new virus. Action then might have averted the catastrophe now.
3
Not clear why this matters. Buildings with beds are easy to build. Staffing is what defines a hospital.
4
This 10-day hospital construction goes far beyond the "limitations" of the American (or Western) legal system, safety laws, zoning regulations, government oversight, etc. And it goes far beyond the fact that China is an authoritarian state.
The Chinese people, today, embody a similar attitude to the early American pioneers who overcame hardship, adversity, and had nothing more that a fierce desire and need to succeed. The average Chinese person works for minimal pay with little recourse to safety standards or legal representation. What drives them arises out of decades, if not centuries, of grinding poverty. That's not something that can be imitated or artificially fabricated. It's a natural reaction to a great want arising out of historical impoverishment.
8
The comments are absolutely amazing!
Whatever you think of the Chinese form of government, making all of the pieces come together in 10 days is simply amazing.
Cries of dictatorship are nonsense. Under English, and American Common Law there is the concept of the police power. Exercise of the police power allows an authorized government official to do ANYTHING that s/he reasonably believes is necessary to protect life and property. Thus, a police officer can order you out of your house or take it over in an emergency.
The police power could be used to build a hospital, but I doubt that we could mobilize the resources in 10 days. Give the Chinese credit for a remarkable accomplishment.
11
It's truly incredible some of the amazing engineering feats the Chinese can achieve in record time. But the scale of these achievements only makes it more befuddling why they can't handle such small and inexpensive things like telling the truth to themselves and the world before they need to build a 1,000 bed hospital in 10 days. If they could do the latter, they would not have to do the former.....
5
Impressive. Now they have to staff it. But I guess if they can build it, they can staff it. And they're smart enough to admit only confirmed cases. Good luck to them.
4
Can't believe how many comments I have read about presumed lack of durability. What insane person would want to keep a pit of contagion like that around? When this crisis passes, that thing is going to be razed like only a Fire God can. Seriously.
1
@The F.A.D.
It does look disposable, doesn't it.
China is interested in building deep sea ports in Cambodia, building aircraft carriers, building Iron Higways and recolonizing Latin America via Surinam.
Hospitals are not a priority. That's why they are scrambling to build hospitals in ten days.
Pathetic
2
No whining, no excuses, no blaming.
They said they'd build it, they did it.
Bravo China! The next step is a speedy recovery.
9
It's one thing to have a building with rooms to care for a thousand patients. It's another to have the equipment, supplies, and trained personnel to support and care for them over an extended period of time. While it's important to show it's trying, it remains to be seen if the Communist Party can actually deliver in enough ways to quickly curtail the epidemic.
The particular characteristics of this virus, still largely to be determined, have a lot to do with how this plays out. But this could jeopardize the Chinese economy for the long term. It could also jeopardize the future of the Communist Party if it is widely seen as bungling things.
3
Do we forget how fast we built airplanes and ships during WWII? A dictatorship was not needed.
6
@Frank when it comes to killing, we have always been the best.
2
To all those criticizing it as "nothing more than a quarantine ward" or snickering that it likely wouldn't survive an earthquake, could you guys think about it for a min.
Yes, of course it is a quarantine ward. Of course you would only want Corona patients there. How would you feel about 200 Corona patients getting admitted to your local pediatric hospital. But, the fact that one of its' primary functions is indeed containment does not preclude the possibility that it might also provide life saving care. With most viral infections, it is a waiting game. You try to stay alive while your immune system mobilizes against the invaders. Part of it is actually surviving your own immune response. Actual antiviral treatments are very limited at this time, so the role of hospital care is really just to support you while your immune system wages its' scorched earth war against the virus in your body. Things like breathing assistance is hard to provide at home.
With respect to earthquakes, I don't think anyone is too worried about this place functioning 10years done the road. This is temporary, and meant only to deal with the current crisis. And if an earthquake were to strike? Well, unfortunately lightning can strike twice or thrice....
They are doing all they can. Let's cheer them on. Let's help in any way we can.
22
What China has built is far from a full-fledged hospital, nor built for the Long haul. Good for them, but three days after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centers, our military had moved a 1,000 bed, fully capable trauma and surgery hospital to within blocks of the scene:
https://health.mil/News/Articles/2016/09/10/Bringing-Comfort-to-New-York-City
And we have another one of those, just in case.
5
Maybe I’m comparing apples to oranges, but by way of contrast, my small Chicago neighborhood Metra rail station has been under renovation since 2009, and its only about 2/3 complete.
That’s 11 years of constant construction turmoil, street closures, noise, mud, dirt, earth-shaking pile driving.
The entire North Line from Chicago to Kenosha, Wisconsin was laid down in 4 years in the mid-19th century.
6
Lets hope the buildings can stand earthquakes. Or time.
2
Having spent most of my life as an ironworker, I think this is impressive. If you ignore safety and inspections and have a massive well trained workforce speed will be the result. Although, I don’t think this is as impressive as the construction of the Empire State Building that was accomplished in a year with a similar situation although without the modern technologies that China has, but still impressive.
3
From what I've read, the existing hospitals in Wuhan are desperately short of equipment, supplies, and medical staff. Where will all these come from for this new hospital? I think it's more likely this hospital is, in reality, just a quarantine facility.
8
It looks like there are bars over the windows.
Is this typical for China?
I think US citizens would be scared to go in.
4
After they are done with the hospital, could they come over and work on our subway for 10 days?
12
Did anyone notice most of the windows of this "hospital" have bars on them? I did, and the fact the military is running this site affirms my belief that this isn't so much a hospital as a containment center for the government to place their people into. When you have an inexhaustible supply of workers toiling 24/7, private suppliers controlled by the government, and little planning or oversight (not to mention an obvious lack of construction safety), this also affirms my belief that the Wuhan "hospital" sounds like something from a discarded thriller by Robin Cook or Michael Crichton.
9
I’m going to venture to say that the Chinese probably worked 24 hours a day on this project which would make those 10 days more like 30 American work days. Slow pokes.
2
I just wouldn’t want to be in that hospital during an earthquake.
3
Those are prefabricated housings using flexible fiber glass materials, they are very quake resistant.
3
Good to know!!
2
The Empire State Building was built in 13 months, the Pentagon in 18 months.
If you have the will to do it you can.
It seems that the construction industry which may or may not be still connected to organized crime, is surely political and seem to extend construction months and years than is really necessary.
I am not a big fan of President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party, but I would love to see Chinese, Japanese and German companies compete for construction projects here in the United States.
The projects would probably be finished in half the time they take now.
5
A grand show to make what is, in effect, merely a giant isolation and quarantine ward.
7
@Bob
Exactly.
The patients have to be pre-diagnosed because the ventilation system will not be in place to stop the spread of the virus. It is not a functioning hospital.
It reminds me more of a port with stacked containers than a hospital. That said, the prefab units are interesting.
1
China was a bit slow to react as it was during the SARS events but I give it credit for marshaling its resources to produce a badly needed product in record time.
5
Wow. I completely understand other commenters' points about how China's government doesn't have to put up with the democratic considerations that we do when taking on such gargantuan projects, but still, it's an impressive feat. Just as their high-speed trains, futuristic cities, and even their surveillance state are too (not that I'd want to replicate their surveillance state, I'm talking just about their technological prowess). In some ways, China reminds me a lot of early 20th century America - a country undoubtedly on the rise, periodically wowing the world with feats of technological and engineering power.
8
Truly amazing how fast China has built this hospital. The advantage they have with their governing system is something to behold and fearful of. Imagine if we ever had a military conflict with China -- their nimbleness would be hard to overcome!
3
Was the lack of beds the problem? I thought it was the lack of primary care staff at current hospitals , underpaid and overworked as a matter of course.
Remember the saying, when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail?
China has an over abundance of resources dedicated to building and infrastructure and an underwhelming amount of resources to developing staff. So it’s building a hospital without staff.
3
@Yeah
- it is likely that lack of beds has indeed been a problem, unless they run a huge number of empty beds normally.
This would involve squandering vast sums of money when you are not dealing with an epidemic or disaster.
-having a dedicated hospital is an excellent strategy with respect to containment. It doesn't matter that the next guy coughs on you, cause you already got it.
-people requiring hospital treatment for pneumonia don't need "primary care staff". while i have no clue whether this hospital can deliver it, what the severely ill need is tertiary care.
-underpaid and overworked as a matter of course" is the lot of primary care clinicians the world over.
2
If you can build giant prison complexes overnight, this should take about a few more days than usual :)
1
There’s an old “joke” where a Western capitalist (Trump in this day and age) meets a dictator (Chinese leader) over a huge bridge and asks - how did you manage to build such a big and beautiful bridge so quickly and still manage to personally become so rich?
The dictator responds - I order things around, and for every two bags of cement, I keep one for myself.
The western capitalist learned quickly and the dictator once comes to visit him. Upon arriving, the capitalist opens his window and asks the dictator: do you see the beautiful bridge out there? The dictator responds - what bridge, I don’t see anything? The western capitalist says: I kept the two bags of cement and built nothing.
8
No this is dumb, no matter who does it.
Building something this fast guarantees only one thing: big problems. We do it too. A lot of our contemporary structures are terrible because they were made as fast as possible.
For example, just one, how long does it take for that concrete they're pouring to cure, if its going to hold up to use, that is? Best practice is 28 days, at least two weeks of not letting it dry out (yes, kept wet, under plastic or burlap) because concrete continues to harden long after it feels hard and needs water for that chemistry to function. Maybe they're using a special mix but it still won't be as good. Rushing that will result in floors that fail sooner than later. And that's the foundation.
If its modular, as it looks like it is at least to an extent, they've still got to run/connect electrical, plumbing, and as we can see ventilation, and they need to take time to make sure everything is well fastened...and safely so. Will there be no outlets, no sinks? Maybe so.
Its not a brag-able accomplishment to build a huge structure in 10 days, rather its a sign of our priorities. Look at structures that are ancient and still standing for evidence of the obvious. This building will be huge, ugly, dysfunctional, and a blight within 10 years (long after the builder has flown the coop). A tent(s) would have been wiser...what ever happened to long-range thinking?
2
This isn’t meant to last hundreds of years or win design awards. They are responding to a public health crisis. What they’ve done is incredible. This could not have been done anywhere but China.
16
I don't understand why they aren't just putting sick people up in the ghost cities. They facilities and roads are already built. The cities are empty. All they'd need is medical equipment. Having been to China, I find it hard to believe that they could build a decent hospital in 10 days. And how long does it take for concrete to cure? Oh right, longer than ten days.
2
@thewriterstuff, The hospital only has to last as long as the health crises lasts.
3
But....does it have a food court??
5
@Sipa111 Yes, with an exotic animal restaurant and an endangered species booth where you can by a rhino tusk for your erectile disfunction!
4
(towards) thewriterstuff
You might have a starting treatment for another Indiana Jones movie there.
The Chinese are doing great work. A one thousand bed hospital built in two weeks? Amazing. A one thousand two hundred bed hospital scheduled to be finished in a few more days? Unbelievable. This is impressive infrastructure creation.
In 1993 Shanghai began its metro service with one line. There are now seventeen lines. I was there in 2013. Everything is brand new. All the stations are clean and modern. All the trains are clean and new. There is no decaying subway infrastructure like New York. I would respectively suggest that Mayor DeBlasio visit Shanghai just to view a clean modern subway system in operation.
If the 20th Century was the American Century then a case could be made that the 21st Century belongs to the Chinese.
9
@John Murray
Don't be fooled, John. Go back and look at this hospital in 10 years. Time will tell if these things you mention end up costing more and causing more headache than if they were built carefully in the beginning. Don't let a veneer fool you. The NY Metro system has been in operation for a very long time, some of it built shoddily, some not.
1
Don’t be fooled.These two hospitals r just for this crisis.
In reply to Anita F Roma
I’m not being fooled. And you’re absolutely right. The hospitals have been built now for the crisis. They needed them now. They built them now. Who knows how long they will last? I’ve seen plenty of construction built from cinder blocks in the US. I’ve been here 47 years and they are still standing.
3
To build a hospital instead of busing patients to other cities and their hospitals in order to give them fast and proper treatment seems ridiculous. Locking off Wuhan is violating fundamental human rights.
Isolation and immediate help regarding the very first cases would have been a lot more impressing and, after all, spared us the crisis that has developped from these first cases. Do I remember wrongly? I get the impression that Africa handled Ebola a lot better without building idiotic hospitals.
Putting the 7000 workers in safety uniforms in order to evacuate the patients to other hospitals in the country would have helped a lot more, especially regarding the circumstances infected people have found them in the last weeks, queuing at hospitals they have been walking to for hours.
People are treated with utmost cynicism violating human rights. Well Wuhan only comprises 3 to 5% of the Chinese population and their safety, wellbeing and lives are willfully put in jeopardy as the China as a whole, in other words the remaining 1,35 billions or so, can obviously survive this catastrophe without the inhabitants of Wuhan.
What we do watch here is a totalitarian regime in action that does not care for its citizens who screem liks rats of fear and despair. Horrifying.
2
@MK So, they should use a busing program to make sure no corner of the empire is unscathed? Perhaps some patients could be air lifted to your home town so that nobody is left out.
2
Watching video of all these densely packed large backhoes simultaneously digging and swinging their booms is impressive.....reminds me of when the Rockets would perform on TV and they had a camera shot from high above the stage
The US used to be capable of this rapid construction. No longer though because of unions' complex job rules and repeated delays for government inspectors at every stage of construction.
Now only the US military could do this, and even then only during war.
3
Time, Cost, Quality. You can only pick two.
9
@Rob
More accounts for the speed of China building than just low quality. The Soviet Union built really low quality buildings, too, but not fast like the Chinese.
@Rob
Spot on
When I was visiting China ten years ago, I read an article in a local English-language newspaper about the many high-rises that were in such poor shape after just 20 or 30 years that official were wondering whether they should be torn down and replaced. Contrast that with cultural expectations in the west that what is built, or most of it, should be built to last at least a half century or more. Many of us have lived in, studied in, attended worship services in , buildings that were over a century old and are still standing, thanks to a basic structure that permits renovations. That the Chinese can build a sprawling hospital in less than two weeks does not surprise me, but this one has not been built to last. Since this is an emergency response structure (see Jon's comment, from which I copped this phrase) it's understandable. Would be nice, though, if the Chinese applied higher standards of stability, safety, durability, and sustainability to their high-rise housing.
3
@Barbara Pines I live in a prewar building so I know what you mean. That said, have you every been in new construction?
The same philosophy that has contributed to the polluted air and unsanitary environment that caused the coronavirus is applied being applied to the solutions, and we are in awe of this???? I'm sure the god-awful skyscrapers pictured in the background were built just as swiftly. I wonder what the residence quarantined in those skyscrapers think. The water in the lake near by is probably is housing the next virus that will call for more hospitals to be built even faster.
5
Now they need to make enough face masks and goggles for their doctors and nurses.
1
Instant hospital is an example of "Socialism with Chinese characteristics"
2
Can't beat slave labor!
3
Building a hospital in 10 days is quite an engineering feat, but will it be staffed by well trained medical personal, equipped with all of the medical equipment, and well-supplied? Even if all of the above, given the course of the epidemic, will the new hospitals even make a meaningful difference?
1
Very impressive by any measure even considering there is likely lots of shoddy construction. It will serve its purpose and do so immediately.
2
Dear FEMA: Can we subcontract disaster relief and recovery to China?
4
Just because they say its done does not means it is, I work on the construction industry and if we where provided with the latest pictures I dont see the outside done (it is critical because the dust and contamination stops at the door), nor do i see landscaping, parking,lighting, windows? how can you keep a place sterile when you have so much traffic,,, this must be pure propaganda and i dont fall for it.
4
A communist regime without a shred of fundamental human rights such as the most important one: the right to be free.
How come Trump can't build his wall along the border in 10 days, much less a hospital? And Trump is the self described as the "greatest builder ever!"
4
Maybe when they are done we (NYC) can bring in the crew to finish the Van Wyck.....(25+ years and counting)
How the heck did they prefabricate all of those components I see being assembled in less that a week? Did they have a complete architectural design on the shelf and the components stockpiled somewhere? Amazing. Wonder how long it will stand?
4
If the US were to face similar circumstances and need to build infrastructure in expedient manner, our military should have the ability to expedite resources and execute without impediment. For civilian projects, it is in our interest to have processes to guarantee maximum safety.
1
It's interesting China can build a hospital in 10 days when it took years and years to build the new VA hospital in Colorado and it was ridiculously over budget.
5
I find the comments here very mean spirited. This is a huge achievement in a time of crisis and we should be sending our thoughts and prayers. Even for selfish reasons, we want this to work. We want the Fire God to cleanse the world of this threat. And we need to steal their kung fu for accomplishing projects like this. Because, one day, hopefully not for the Wuhan virus, but for the Big One on its' way, we are going to need to do stuff like this. And right now, we don't really know how. People who are talking about repurposing stadiums and the like, obviously don't work in healthcare. People are going to need much more than simple shelter and even that is questionable (remember Katrina?). Ever been to an ER in NYC? If not, you don't have any idea about what wait times could look like in a "modern", affluent American city on a typical, no pandemic day. God help us.
19
It's insane to run a country this way. Public health is about prevention and the free flow of ideas and opinion. This central planned dictatorial lunacy will work as well as it did in Chernobyl in 1986 or in 2021 if Sanders gets elected. (The man does love Moscow. He honeymooned there.)
7
@MJG Ehh, doing a honeymoon doesnt mean love for the country, like i find china pretty, doesnt mean i like Beijing.
4
Take note FEMA. After the Katrina and Puerto Rico disastrous response, the Chinese government has something to teach you if you're listening which is doubtful. No one has ever seen a response like this, it is completely unprecedented. Nothing like sticking it in the face of the West constantly second guessing and constantly slandering China and it's government. The US cannot even begin to come close to respond effectively like China right now. You, know, I talk every day to all my friends in China including Wuhan. I can tell you people a all shouldering the burden for the fight. Staying home, organizing the duration. Being one. Nothing like this possible here; just a bunch of whining and second guessing with self-righteous 100% hindsight.Take notice whiny America. This is how you should be behaving.
22
@Blue Zone
But ask for the quality of these hospitals, the equipment, etc. The reason the USA takes so much time due to them needing to build sterile environments, get professional doctors etc.
And I dont think the lack of medical infrastructure in such a large city is something to congratulate. They have had similar out breaks to certain areas, but instead of building high quality hospitals in large population centers, they build a rushed project that looks like a warehouse rather than an actual hospital.
This feels like rushing a final project on its due date, and china congratulating itself for a D.
4
@Blue Zone I could agree more. Well said.
2
@Blue Zone I really don't like calling someone stupid but in this case I have no choice. The US can't respond like this because people would riot in the streets if they did. In order to do what the Chinese are doing you have to be able to control all aspects of the situation without reproach. You have to be able to displace people without consequence. You have to be able to hire whoever you want for whatever price you want. You have to be able to ignore specifications and regulations that otherwise would cause delays or stoppages. You would have to be able to source the material at cost in bulk no matter what other projects may suffer shortages. You have to be able to supress, with any means necessary, those that disagree with the project. You have to be a Government run society that can write, amend, and enforce all things in life whenever and wherever they want.
6
Chinese government officials are not elected by people, but they have to start from managing a village, then a town, a county, then a large city, a province. Their performance is evaluated based on local GDP, the ability of attracting foreign investment, stability etc.. The system is far from being perfect. But you have to give them credit that they get things do efficiently, which is a double edged sword that means they not only build things quickly but also make mistake fast.
9
It doesn’t matter what one thinks of their politics, this is truly remarkable.
10
This is no hospital. This is a death camp. Patients go in this hospital and you will never see them come out. And since it is under military control. Death toll won't be counted as death by the 'new SARS' virus. They did the same thing back in 2003 when the then SARS virus of causing panic.
3
Certainly a lot of the comments are thoughtful and point out the political differences but still, it is really amazing what people can do when it's truly essential. I give the Chinese their due on this one. If we had such a disaster, what would happen?
Joe
8
Cool, after the epidemic is over they can turn it into a reeducation camp.
4
Now if only the Chinese could be hired to complete the 2nd Avenue subway.
6
This looks like a prison camp, not a hospital.
3
Dictators might be awful people, but they can get things done. And done fast. One wonders, looking at this amazing achievement, why the human race cannot come together with similar conviction and haste to take climate change and overpopulation.
4
In this building, sick people will be locked up inside. Hopefully they all will get the treatment they need. Let's hope there is Wifi so patients can post their comments on Weibo in case they are left to die in there.
1
We marvel at the Chinese high-speed rail system. Well, guess what? It was built under the same environmental standards (none), traffic studies (none), public hearings and objections (none), diversity quotas (none), and union contracts and work rules (none) as this hospital is being built.
So yes, we could have a high-speed rail system. Just have the government create the right-of-way no matter how much havoc it causes, pay workers minimum wage for 60-hour weeks, and import thousands of Chinese workers who have a ridiculous work ethic, even when paid low wages and given no protections.
40
@Erik Though we don't hear much about it in the news media there are widespread protests in China every day by people calling for environmental protections.A few years ago, I read there were 3,000 protests every day around the nation. Probably safe to assume others are calling for workers rights. It's unsustainable; China will change . . . eventually.
1
@Erik
60-hour minimum wage - by the time viral has already been killing spree
minimum wage- they've been paied 3-4 times to normal wage (>1,000 RMB/day)
Racial quota - understanding a basic sense about China will help you get the sense that China does not have such issue in most of the regions
...
so every coin has its two sides, and please do some basic research before judging
4
@Erik
What you are saying is that your nation has become decadent and is doomed to fail. It happens to every powerful nation eventually. Now your time has come.
4
Not sure i would want to stay in a ten-day hospital. Fire God Mountain sounds like all that would be left after the thing collapses. Couldn't they build a large military-type temporary tent (s) instead? I also wonder why China hasn't deployed mobile testing units to different neighborhoods so everyone isn't converging on the few brick-and-mortar hospitals and possibly spreading infection. If there is no transportation, the medical units should go to where the people are.
2
US Army can build hospital may not 1000 bed close to war theatres with operating rooms and all other essential required equipments in short period of time. China has command economy and probably in the time of such crisis and large number of regulations and ignored or delayed.
Ignore all the thing about 2019-nCoV, just talking about hospitals in New York City.
When was the last time a hospital was build or completely refurbished in NYC? New York Presbyterian bought up a number of private hospitals and seems to have spend some money improving the structures of the hospital. The same cannot be said of the city operated hospitals.
I had the misfortune of having to visit the emergency room of 2 city hospital centers within the last 3 years and they were packed. 3 beds stuffed into space for 1 and more beds along the hallway. The drunk and mentally unstable that were brought in by cops argues with the medical staffs. There is at least one prisoner under guard handcuffed to the bed and I guess they forgot the key so were cutting the handcuff with a grinder.
I cannot imagine the city’s health care system is functioning well with so few hospital beds being added.
3
Dictatorships have the power to get things done very quickly - for better or worse. Unfortunately, with rare exception, it's usually the latter. Most likely due to the fact that power is such a corrosive force.
1
...Why do the windows all have bars on them? That's a little unsettling.
4
It amazes me that people seem to he longing for authoritarianism in order to "get things done". Yes, we have too much red tape. Do you think the CCP bothered with things like buying the land from the previous owners or asking the workers if they wanted to move here to work? You can do a lot when the people don't have rights and safety standards and markets don't have to be met. Just look at all those ghost cities. Build a cheap city that no one wants? Why not? They have really "efficient" re-education camps too.
3
I would not want to be in this place come the next earthquake.
I doubt the U.S. could do it in 100 days.
Meanwhile, there were Americans still living in toxic FEMA trailers ten YEARS after Katrina. Maybe some still are.
2
Well well well. The evil Chinese can build a massive hospital in under two weeks while here in Los Angeles it took 3 years to finally finish one housing unit for our homeless folks.
And my point is? A once thoughtful ideology 'liberalism' is the root of most of our ills in large cities.
Apparently LA - that has been run forever by Democrats - has built an abusive set of regulations that make each unit in the low-cost housing projects cost over $500,000 per unit!!!
I am a life long Democrat and am currently suffering from a diabolical form of nausea watching the party debate ridiculous policies when the apparatus that actually runs our government is sitting back sipping on mid-twentieh century Burgundies and drinking all the way to the bank.
Not to mention my hypnotized friends following every FAKE Trump investigation as if it was for real.
2
@zigful26 there's an article in The Atlantic written by a senior research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute that traces these regulations back to the 80's. It's called "The Boomers Ruined Everything."
A lot of it has to do with local level "neighborhood character" and minimum lot size regulations.
1
@ND
Thank you. I will have to check it out.
Does any entity in US have this rapid-construction capacity?
@vishmael the military.
As always, "cheap", "fast", "well". Pick two. China picked "cheap" and "fast". Most US businesses choose "cheap" and "well".
I see a lot of comments here saying this could never happen in the U.S. because of a) red tape (design, environmental compliance, bidding process, etc.) and/or b) lack of authoritarian regime. Do we really not have the capacity to quickly build makeshift facilities like this in times of emergency? Doesn't the army do this all the time? Isn't FEMA prepared to rapidly build infrastructure like this during emergencies? Maybe part of the story--as is happening now in SoCal--is that the U.S. has excess capacity to use if needed, such as old military facilities, sports stadiums, underused hospitals, etc. I don't think it's a matter of lack of authoritarian regime. For non-emergency projects in China, things happen a bit slower, and with sometimes decades of careful (or not so careful planning). The Three Gorges Dam wasn't built by some "dictator" snapping his fingers and making it happen.
2
@David
I agree. All they're doing is some grading, pouring a concrete foundation and installing pre-fab buildings which were likely already built. I have a friend in that business, and I bet he could organize it to be done in 5 days.
2
@David
Check out the Raffles City Chongqing project in China. It's a project of tremendous scale and vision - eight 79-story skyscrapers and a 'horizontal skyscraper'. The horizontal skyscraper being something I don't think's ever been done before - an enormous 300 meter bridge connecting across the top of 4 of the skyscrapers. It's very much the start a sort of sci-fi city above the city building scheme.
Started in 2013, finished in 2019.
2
Unbelievable. In the USA they would still be in court over environmental issues.
If we had such a crisis in America we would find away as well. We would probably use stadiums and schools and have the military trunk in hospital equipment. We would get it done in our own way. There is more than one way to cook an egg! Good for the Chinese. It's inspiring to see people unite and work as a team.
2
@Bo Lang look how well that worked out during Hurricane Katrina.
3
How many problems can I spot just from reading this article and looking at the pictures? One, the hospital appears to be built on low-lying swampland. Two, doesn't appear enough time even for quick-set concrete to have set. Three, bars on all the windows. Is it a hospital or a quarantine facility? Four, you can't get in unless diagnosed at another facility, and all of those are overwhelmed and out of test kits, turning patients away. Five, Wuhan probably needs 10,000 additional beds, not 1000. Building this hospital in 10 days was more a publicity stunt than anything else. Arresting the 8 physicians who spoke out, early on about an outbreak, thus ensuring it turned into an epidemic, that was what the party needs to be remembered for.
5
I think that the most important question for us to be asking right now is how can we help?
6
Without a well-designed ventilation system this isn’t a hospital; it’s a mass infection facility. Let’s face the uncomfortable truth that this place may not have been designed for treating and curing, but merely for quarantine.
2
I read that some workers didn't even ask or demand a secure paycheck. They just poured out their effort day and night for the sake of the people who are sick. I saw pictures of some of them taking a nap on the floor. Many of them know that their hard work means life/death for many. Yes, we can debate about politics. But it is important to give a huge applause to these workers despite political views.
9
@JaneY you're assuming they had a choice.
That they built that hospital in 10 days is truly amazing.
At first I thought that there was no way we in America could ever come close, but then I remembered that we built Liberty ships in WW2 in about 4 days.
3
Lessons from this crisis:
Avoid eating animal protein. Viruses are most prevalent in exotic species but US animal farms will kill you, too. Just takes longer.
How about we get China to build us some fast cheap housing units for the homeless. Of course, some standards have to be relaxed. As much as I hate Trump I’m amazed how business people to a person are happy with his attempt to reduce regulation in the US.
I wonder how their secret ballot will reveal this in November.
@DD
Sure, let the homeless deal with Chinese drywall. What's in your walls by the way?
1
It is a tad ironic, with the Supreme Court having weakened union bargaining powers, and "right-to-work" states existing, and unregulated capitalism that we cannot grasp how this is possible.
China is the manufacturing "capital" of the world. China also is a communist dictatorship; meaning that all means of production are owned and shared equally by the people; the government is designed to be "the people." China, however, is a dictatorship were President Xi makes all of the decisions. Projects like this are easily erected because the government does not have to ask anyone to complete these tasks, they just do it.
Some of you are showing your ignorance by saying that the buildings do not meet US code, and etc. That is not 100% true, and you all have no proof of that. The government has over 7,000 construction workers building, in a "dead city" around the clock for several days.
The building's construction is complete, but it is not "open."
Let's do our research.
1
People seem to praise china and are amazed they got it done in ten days. I am sure the us could have gotten this done as fast too. People seem to forget the us is the world' s oldest, most stable government. This means they have means and the systems to deal with just about anything
Building a 1000 bed hospital is one thing; how are the Chinese going to staff it?
I understand medical staff is already having difficulty coping with the pandemic.
This demonstration of rapid -- albeit by necessity shoddy and substandard -- construction is intended to offset international condemnation and humiliation of China for being unable to control fatal disease within its own boundaries.
Another example of China's attempt to save face: an op-ed in today's NYT by a senior military official of the People's Liberation Army threatening the US for our policy of preserving freedom of passage in the waterways of the South China Sea:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/03/opinion/pla-us-china-cold-war-military-sea.html
2
Keep in mind they are not taking in all patients whatsoever...seems from NYTimes reporter on the ground (brave soul!) that they are only taking those who have the right paperwork...already tested and very sick...not the many patients who are coming down with the virus, looking for hospital care, and can not find it, they are told all hospitals, including the new ones, are full or not for them - those people are left at home (infecting others), too often dying or dead. Far more are infected than the official number, that seems abundantly clear....Sadly, 2,500 new beds will not help enough (though, yes, better than nothing). China will try to use these buildings as proof they are on top of the health disaster, strong & capable & in control...but dealing with it at the beginning, not hiding and punishing those who spoke of a new virus, would have been far better than having new buildings and what will be many thousands dying. And the WHO seems to just play along with the Chinese government version of events, which is really awful, and sad. So much of this could have been averted with proper public health measures, which are always wiser than being able to build a quarantine building lickety-split. I would not ooh and ahh over the buildings too much, just what China wants, a Look over here! Not over there at the elderly dying in the streets....
3
There are pros and cons to democracies and authoritarian states. We learn from each other. When you have a crisis, in any system, you step up!
1
The article states the workers are migrants - from where?
How are the workers getting to and from the site if public transportation are limited?
If Donald Trump had anywhere near Xi Jinping's level of power, he would, without question, engage in the same kinds of hypocrisy and self-serving corruption as the Chinese.
But I doubt he would have ordered the building of a thousand bed hospital in ten days. A 2,000 mile wall, or a 4,000 cell prison, or an 8,000 person "re-education camp" for "dissenters"? Absolutely! But not a hospital. A thousand room hotel with his name on it, yeah, but not a hospital.
3
This is no doubt an amazing accomplishment, but the before and after photos at the top are unfortunately misleading, as the before photo shows only a small section of the area shown in the after photo.
I’m amused by the number of people that are commenting on building codes and quality of construction. The writer is using the word “hospital” but this is not what WE think as a hospital. The point of the article is completely something else. The Government and the world can not afford to wait longer than 10 days to get help to people because people are dying by a minute at home and at the current medical center. The Medical Centers are turning people away because they don’t have space. Those people are going home and infecting others and/or dying. Those that are sick have to walk for hours and then are turned away and have to walk back! And I bet their family members don’t want to go with them either. And those that have people that are dead at home are living with those bodies!
This is to prevent more people from dying and to get them medicine they need.
I think Wuhan needs at least 10 more of these and hundreds more Ambulances. It’s a sad sad sad situation!
It’s best to be empathetic and encouraging! This is just a building to SAVE people’s lives!
3
Good for China in the rapid construction of this facility. Of course, I fully expect to hear in the coming weeks or months that, due to shoddy construction practices, this hospital will have suffered some kind of cataclysmic failure and that many lives have been lost as a result.
Obviously, I do hope I am wrong in this prediction.
Yes, it's a fact that a dictatorship can get things done faster than a democracy, but it remains a dictatorship. Just as it's a fact that it takes longer to get things done in a democracy than in a dictatorship, but it remains a democracy.
Faster doesn't mean better in all things, any more than slower means worse in all things.
The political system that is most likely to ensure the best of both worlds is one which enshrines "compromise". A word the founding fathers wisely understood.
It's also a word which has been outlawed within the modern GOP for some time now. Something the founding fathers never intended - because they knew it would inevitably lead to dictatorship. And you would be hard-pressed to find any evidence these days that a dictatorship isn't exactly what the modern GOP has in mind for this country.
4
@Chicago Guy agreed. Unfortunately, the democratic government becomes increasingly racist and the dictator government works harder to serve all its citizens. The irony of the world.
1
In a 10-day construction process, what kind of safety mechanisms exist to protect the welfare of construction workers and, later, hospital workers and patients? I for one would be wary of the structural integrity of that building.
3
@Emily
Most likely the hospital will be a special type of a motel. If it is a mostly modular and prefabricated two storey building structural integrity will not be a major problem.
3
Honestly, this is not what I expected to read. People are dying because they can’t get medical help. Is it really this really important?
1000 beds mean 10,000 people can be seen in a short period of time. Does it make sense not to build a building because of the danger? Thousands of lives will be saved just for finishing this in 10 days. Yes, it’s risky, but the article says some person lost their mother! What is more important?
2
This seems like the type of thing FEMA should be able to do, have plans for and be able to roll out immediately if ever needed. Maybe a type of Modular multi-use building, could be hospital, could be housing/school/etc etc. However, given their response to Katrina, Puerto Rico, etc, I'm not too confident.
3
China did something similar before with SARS. It is likely there are standard designs already drawn up with modules already pre-built.
The US actually has hundreds of closed hospitals sitting empty. I can think of 4 locally. How hard would it be to reopen closed facilities?
2
It's only possible in China (both the pandemic and the hospital construction). They own the whole supply chain for the project and can divert the manufacturing capabilities to an emergency situation like this. We have outsourced raw materials and manufacturing. We have to find a Chinese company that will actually supply the components or we have to use Army Corp of Engineers to make the battlefield versions.
1
@OpEd
Yes, and the taxpayers would cover the great expences of the toilet seats so that the private sector would have more incentives. Otherwise the pork train would run out of fuel.
And with equal drive, focus and technology, China's "Belt & Road" initiatives are paving the way toward 21st C dominance as US sleeps on its laurels and memories.
5
What really stood out for me was that photo of men quarantined in Kansas in 1918. The place seemed so CLEAN. I have seen big hospitals in India and a sense of hygiene is clearly lacking. Yes, tremendous number of labor, very poor training. Even if the hospital appears clean, the outside is unbearably filthy. Hospital help live in places where clean water is scarce and the hospitals are not ensuring people bathe or wear clean clothes. In essence, it is pointless building hospitals quickly if you cannot factor hygiene into a populations DNA. So in reality all these pandemics are going to arise due to close proximity to decomposing filth. I don't know what it's like in China in terms of clean surroundings, but looking at the photos of the market, it seems to resemble India minus the exotic entrails. Here in the USA we need to take a closer look at the poverty stricken homeless population, the poorer states in the south, and how we farm animals and poultry. Just because we are a rich country does not mean we cannot be the source of future pandemics.
3
Funny thing.
15 years ago the escalator at the DC Woodley Park metro stop was out of order. Passengers were told that the 200 steps would have to be climbed the old fashion way. And, no elevator. And the repairs would take one year. Amazing. In the meantime, the hi way overpass that was damaged by fire last year in Atlanta was supposed to take 2 months to repair. Massive disruption. The repairs were done in one week. Also amazing.
4
Given some of the problems encountered with construction in recent years (eg subpar concrete) I only hope this hospital will withstand normal wear and tear; experts in construction will know better than me, but it seems certain things take time to do well; concrete needs to settle, etc...
In the US, the bridge built in Florida using an ‘accelerated method’ failed 2 years ago.
3
@lm
This facility was constructed of pre-fabbed modular units, similar to those used at remote work sites to house employees. They can be and are disassembled and moved to other sites as the need arises. That's why it went together so very fast. My question is, clearly these units are designed for patient care -- how many more does China have sequestered away some where ? Maybe making them became policy after the SARS outbreak. Other countries could follow suit . . .
3
The more consolidated government control is, the faster it can implement it's agenda - for better or worse. The less consolidated it is - which is what the founding fathers, in their wisdom, truly intended - the more compromise is required.
The problem we face in this country is that the consolidation of power into the the hands the modern GOP - which by every metric represents a minority - isn't directed towards benefiting the public at large, rather, it's directed towards benefiting a few extremely rich individuals at the top.
And, if the GOP is going use our taxes on any construction projects, it's going to be for building walls (to keep out mostly harmless immigrants), and for building prisons (for mostly poor and middle class scofflaws, with the rare exception being a rich person who has made the grievous mistake of defrauding other rich people)
China has engaged in a lot of corruption and misuse of power over the years, but we have seen nothing in the last few decades to suggest that the the GOP would be any different if, and when, they could wield the same level of control.
In fact, I think it's safe to say that if the GOP had the same power as China's Central Committee, they would use it much more selfishly and irresponsibly.
After all, when China determines that corporate executives have egregiously betrayed the public trust, they don't give them multi-million dollar golden parachutes, they put them to death.
7
This is somewhat impressive but I will only be impressed with the Chinese Government if they end live animal food markets and related practices that make this sort of pandemic more likely to occur.
That would be real progress.
2
For about a dozen years, I've gotten the feeling that China is an enormous house of cards. They are capable of building "a hospital" in 10 days but their motivation is always either maintaining control, or proving they are bigger/advanced/better. They drove people to the cities, installed population control, ignored the environment, make short-term decisions (even as they claim they think in long time periods) - when they are unable to pay all the out of work people in cities during the coming (already started) decline, as people in the countryside are struggling, what do you think is going to happen?!
The recession of Japan is an example of what can happen, but they had a much more developed infrastructure, a democratic government, and were well ingrained into the global financial system - and they only have 126 million people.
5
Amazing. For all of the problems China does have this is one example of the government replying to a real humanitarian emergency. Something the US could learn from when we face similar challenges.
I hope that it helps the people who are suffering get the help they need.
4
I wonder where all the workers came from? And what they were paid to work around the clock? You can bet they weren't paid overtime or any "prevailing wage". And how many were conscripted to work there, both individuals and companies? With a dictatorship lots of things can be done in short order as long as there is no enforcement of general standards. Just look at the German autobahn system, built at the direction of Hitler to promote fast movement of troops.
6
Trump should hire them to build the wall.
6
In America would we talk the building of a hospital to death?
4
The last time that I visited China you would have thought that the national bird was the construction crane.
A 92% ethnic Han majority homogeneous society with a 2200 year history as a unified nation can get an awful lots of things done cheaply, efficiently and quickly.
Particularly in a one political party nation state that governed on a term limited collective leadership model that replaced a cult of personality and imperial style that still allowed for and encouraged independence and originality and creativity. That also rewarded merit.
2
How can you build a 100 bed hospital in 10 days. The same way you can create a pandemic that threatens the world at large.
LET's focus on the issue here. Pushing dirt and concrete is peanuts compared to proper health care.
The actual need for a hospital in 10 days tells you everything you need to know cities in China.
6
If you search, you'll find more details, such as this from Business Insider
https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-inside-new-hospital-panic-built-contain-outbreak-2020-2
Indeed an amazing project. But could the US force 4,000 experienced workers to do it here? Confiscate the materials from hundreds of commercial companies?
3
A lot of assumptions here...
Where do they get hospital staff and doctors in 10 days for a huge hospital like this? And if it only accepts referrals - how many people are going to be refused care like the man interviewed in the article?
3
@Mari, This hospital will take diagnosed patients out of the admitting hospitals, freeing up space for more newly sick patients. The new hospitals will be specialized, treating only one kind of patient. Sounds pretty efficient to me.
3
Two weeks? Well it’s official; China has designs and supply chains already in place for the rapid construction of mass detention facilities. I wonder if this hospital shares any design elements with the Xinjiang detention centers.
2
poor the chinese, the plague originated there. they need to learn
Have you seen the video on YouTube? It’s a medical prison.
2
Getting huge projects done quickly is a hallmark of dictatorships.
All the things that slow things down here-
having to pay workers, having to pay for the land, having to take into account neighbors and having to get the money up, all are simply a matter of
"Do it or we shoot you" in dictatorships.
Its not some magical superiority of Chinese culture.
Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin got all sorts of big projects done.
3
The NYTimes descriptions do not do the Huoshengshan Hospital justice. This is not a makeshift mobile hospital, it is a fully equipped respiratory infectious disease treatment center. Each patient room is completely isolated and keep in low pressure to prevent viral particles from spreading. The rooms have built-in oxygen supply and respirators. All air in and out of the hospital are filtered, and there are specialized UV decontamination units for sterilizing food/equipment in each room.
See this report from CGTN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p4NE-e1gMU
3
Are these real hospitals with all the necessary equipments, or just isolation wards? If you look at some photos of the windows in the interiors, they don’t look like hospital windows at all, but prison windows with all the metal bars...
4
Made in China means it is going to be a mess.
3
Makes me even happier to live in a (faltering) democracy...The great Wall of Trump would have been finished in 48 hrs
Nothing short of amazing, simply amazing.
3
Bars on the windows? Hmmm.
1
when dud humanity turn into ants?
Seems like they're barely giving the concrete foundation enough time to dry.
4
At times such as this we can be impressed by the feats that a government-controlled economy can achieve in a short time. China's government is able to direct tremendous effort and resources into a single project. We can be proud of what humans are capable of when working together.
But at the same time, we can also be wary of a government that maintains this control by squashing dissent and individual liberties. And we can be wary of a government whose mismanagement and disinformation is partially responsible for this emerging epidemic in the first place.
The danger of strong central control is a mirror of its benefit: It can accomplish a great deal - for good or for ill - in a short period of time.
86
@Samuel
Can't agree more.
In here, the propaganda tends to promote the bright side, says the system can "focus great power for great deeds".
I guess most people here ignore the dark side that great power also forges the worst mistakes, and it has happened before. But few remember.
1
It takes more than 10 days - more like 28 - just for all the (wet) poured concrete to come to full strength and to relieve itself of most of the moisture. Depending on thickness of the concrete structural elements, it can take up to one year for all moisture to leech itself out. There is therefore a risk of mold forming in non-ventilated spaces. As this this is a hospital, not a playground, a rush-job should not compromise structural integrity nor pose a future risk to health.
6
At this critical time and facing a crisis that could potentially affect everyone of the world, as the most powerful and advanced country, what did the US government do to help to manage it? So far, absolutely nothing except for issuing warnings and border control. Even countries like Pakistan offer to donate protection masks, which is among the most needed.
Before we're quick to criticize the chinese for not meeting strict engineering and hospital standards, we should remember that this is a crisis situation with 11,000 patients in hubei alone. How long does it take to build a hospital in the US or Canada? Months? Years? How well can our infrastructure handle existing medical care demands (answer: not well).
Patients need a place to go, and meeting every exactin standard would come at the cost of lives. Patients would be long dead before receiving treatment. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
360
@mark Don't have to worry about diversity in a hospital. That is because generally speaking, the immigrants and their children know full well that there is no easy path in life. So they do the hard stuff, like go to medical school and graduate school, to earn the degrees and training that will equip them to do difficult but meaningful work.
In contrast, about a third of college students in the US are in business degrees.
18
@Orwellsdisciple ~
Well, what about people who can operate high end manufacturing equipment? Want to ban artists, since that is so trivial?
It "costs" a lot of time:
4 years for bachelor's degree; 4 years for medical school; 3-7 years in residency and fellowships depending on specialty
And hundreds of thousands of borrowed dollars.
And a lot of people are much more comfortable with computers and and healthy people rather than blood and guts.
4
@michael I just feel the Infranstructure for this should of been already planned, with such a large city as Wuhan it should of has Hospitals already to deal with this, with the quality that takes time.
2
In reality, doesn't it take 7 days just for the cement to cure? I'm guessing they either 1, didn't give it enough time and it'll collapse, or 2, figured out a way to make it cure faster.
1
@wib Concrete "sets" in 24 to 48 hours and is usually 'hard enough' in 7 days (30 days full strength). Concrete never stops hardening though. Accelerants can be added to concrete mix to speed up the process, but that usually produces a somewhat weaker finished product. That just means the building's use life is shorter, so plan on the hospital being around for only 20 years.
1
Was the prefab also made in 10 days or was the parts stashed somewhere in China’s equivalent of FEMA? Seems like slower but more permanent version of FEMA’s white tents field hospital.
I wonder if it is possible to stack it higher inside a stadium and instead of digging down and laying pipes and wires for water, sewage, and electricity, just hook it in to stadium’s existing power and sewage lines.
Something to explore and maybe coordinate by major countries for future emergencies. These prefab can be loaded onto cargo planes and fly to disaster zones.
2
I hear people say "Thanks God we live in a FREE country". The recent political events shows the contrary. People do not take into consideration that FREEDOM/LIBERTY is base in ETHICS, MORALS. The Senators have none!
4
It would take NYC leaders ten days to decide what color paper the environmental impact study should be printed on.
10
@TonyC - Ok, all sarcasm aside... that’s sounds pretty quick for an official Reproduction Colorimetric Alternatives Analysis.
Impressive - but so are the pyramids.
This hospital is the modern version of what can be accomplished by suspending all personal liberties towards the pursuit of one goal.
I wish the people of China nothing but the best of luck.
7
@TDC
The workers are paid triple their usual wages to get the project done on time. Personnel from the army were also sent in. Many nurses/doctors traveled from across China to volunteer in Wuhan.
1
"suspending all personal liberties". Wow...
They stole the plans for the hospital from the Japanese and reverse-engineered it, like everything else they do.
(Don't condone all the China bashing going on during their health crisis, but thought we'd throw in a joke about their criminal industrial methods...)
1
@JohnBarleycorn Really? And what evidence do you have? Since when is curing concrete, modular walls, and steel struts a state secret?
2
My discussion only related to the construction.
I would face the reality when writing down the discussion. The reality is: (1) The population is huge in China (so does for Wuhan city); (2) The government is powerful enough to show the things that people need to know; (3) The government is also powerful enough to gather the resource to achieve quick development under special circumstances;
(4) The virus outbreak is an emergency, or a special circumstance; (5) The hospital with 1000 bed and facilities is ready in 10 days.
Based on those facts, my opinions are:
Due to (1) and (2), the outbreak was not well controlled in early stage. However, we need to face the fact. The fact is that the virus is spreading out rapidly and the infections increase fast. To solve the problem, you need more hospitals in short period. In China, this problem can be solved as listed in (3)-(5). My point is, the 10-day-construction is amazing for sure. I would like to know if there is an comparable case (1000 bed with equivalent facilities) around the world.
If you want to say, "why you can constrain the virus in early stage?" "In US, the outbreak like that is impossible so the US doesn't need 10-day-construction", etc. That's another story.
The outbreak was not contained because the government is so powerful? You sound like you are defending the CCP arresting people who spoke out early about the outbreak.
1
@L I am not defending that point, in stead, I am pointing out the government did something wron -- they did not pay enough attention to the SARS-like virus as proposed by those people.
Mr. Xue's mother was probably not counted as a dead victim of the coronavirus. I wonder if the Chinese government's official report was accurate, or did they intentionally keep the number low.
@Hien Bui
Regular pneumonia kills 1.1 million people over the age of 70 worldwide every year. So it is entirely possible that Mr. Xue's mother's death is unrelated to the novel coronavirus.
1
There is no way around saying this is impressive, despite a number of provisos. I doubt seriously that we could do this. Clearly this is not a level one hospital as we know them. Doubt they will do all that much surgery or treat an entire spectrum of problems. Probably designed to deal with many patients with very similar problems. Of course, some of this could have been for show, and sure they may have shortages of medical staffing.
This hospital appears to have bars on the windows and external HVAC ducting. They had excess construction capacity (or the ability to divert 7,000 workers from active projects) including heavy equipment and materials. Apparently, they had a lot of medical equipment ready to go. Some of all of that could have been redirected from elsewhere in the country including staffing.
Modular construction implies simplicity of course but ask yourself why/how they had these units already ready for deployment. And, they had plans and specs in place. My guess is all that had been preplanned per military planning.
Pretty impressive at any level.
3
I read recently that China has poured more concrete in the last three years than the United States did in the last 100.
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that people on food stamps are portrayed as parasites, while billion dollar companies like FedEx, and multi-millionaires like Jared Kushner, who not only pay nothing in taxes, but actually use their tax position as a revenue stream, are held up as icons of responsibility.
If capital gains were taxed at the same rate as labor we could probably replace every road, bridge, school, hospital, and firehouse in this country every 20 years.
11
It’s one thing to build a pre fab hospital for 1000 patients. It’s a completely different thing to staff the hospital with the trained providers (doctors, nurses, etc) and staff (clerks, X-ray technicians, janitors, patient transporters, etc) needed to take care of those patients round the clock. Who is going to care for the patients?
19
@Alex
This is likely more for isolation and containment than comprehensive medical care. A cocktail of tamiflu and two other av drugs is showing promise, you could certainly administer those and monitor in a minimal facility like this.
20
@Alex
Yes, doctors, equipment, medicine are all needed for effective treatment of the thousands of patients. But you cannot assume these are not provided. What is impressive is that this gigantic project is done in such short time. That must be recognized.
3
@Alex ,we are talking about the Chinese. They have a military command structure & they surely wouldn't build a hospital without human resources considerations. They are too smart not to..
5
Kudos to the Chinese government and people so easy for us all to Monday morning criticize and question, but ask yourself could this have been done in a 2nd tier US city, dang even in NYC. They'd be protesters, lawyers, and union strikes and pickets.
BTW what if the Chinese government had delayed action and not did the lock down, what would the count have been in the other countries, so easy again to talk about what they did wrong!
BTW there are things like quick set concrete and also it ain't a skyscraper so deep foundations and thus aren't needed, duh
27
@charles c ,you are right! How quickly the Chinese work is admirable
.
1
Big deal, it’s made from prefab materials, easy to give them a pat on back. What the CCP deserves is not a pat on back but kick in their rear end for lying to their own people and the world about the virus. Allowing their countrymen to fly on planes to there parts of world while sick. Travel biological terrorism.
10
The only endeavor that I can think of that rivals this is when Trump fixed the Wollman Rink in Central Park.
6
@Stu: Thank you. Your truth gets an A+ and my chuckle. It's people like you who make me miss New York.
1
What about when he built the wall? What about when he revived the coal industry? And how about how he got North Korea to disarm? Doesn’t that count for ANYTHING?
1
@Brian Cornelius He has done none of those things.
1
Could a hospital be built in the U.S. in the same time duration?
If not, why not?
4
@David Weinkrantz This is not a hospital. It is a temporary emergency response structure that is being built because they didn't properly respond to the outbreak or prepare after similar previous outbreaks. It is also being built because they didn't have the necessary medical infrastructure in place.
30
@David Weinkrantz
Military could. With waivers for most of the hoops needed. Or an empty warehouse or bigbox store like they did at the border.
6
@David Weinkrantz ,Never...they have to fight in Congress first to see who scores political points😂
12
Bravo to the Chinese and their accomplishment here! Sometimes I yearn for the kind of authorial vision that can create marvels like this. Look what they did for the Summer Olympics or the 800-mile high-speed rail system linking Beijing to a faraway province built within three years! Meanwhile, the U.S. suffers the effects of aging infrastructure throughout the country and a transportation system that’s the envy of no one. Just imagine the effect on our lives and the economy— on the eastern seaboard — if you could link up cities with trains that cruise at 200 mph, so that it would take about an hour to go from my home in Albany to midtown Manhattan!
16
But.... It is one thing to build something, it is a completely another thing to maintain it.
I was in Beijing in May and the Olympic site did not look very good...
And one other thing: It is easy, when you don't have to ask anyone...
19
@Joe Gagen Imagine having a president and Congress that actually cared about infrastructure, high speed rail etc. and spent money on that instead of dumping billions into the military rathole that fills the pockets of the people who profit from weapons manufacture and war itself.
38
@Joe Gagen
Come on Joe! Are you forgetting the high speed rail that is being built from LA to Frisco?? err, oh wait, okay a bad example, but what about the Mexican boarder Great Wall OF trump? err, oh wait, okay another bad example.
Funny how America cant build anything without all kinds of red tape and tons of delays yet Jehovah's Witnesses have built tons of kingdom hall across the country that only took 2 days each to complete. Maybe the US government agencies should ask them how they do it. Jim.
13
Two points I'd like to emphasize.
First, these were built using modular construction. This basically means that the units are per-fabricated (think of the big metal containers you see on cargo ships). The pre-fab units then get welded together. This significantly reduces construction time, and we could do it in the US if faced with a crisis. Although probably not quite as fast.
Second, as someone who constructs hospitals in the US, there are a lot of hospital regulations that are important and not just unnecessary "red-tape." For example, certain rooms must have "positive pressure" or "negative pressure" to either keep sick-particles out or in. Without that, you could have infectious air floating around the whole facility, getting everyone sick. If this hospital does not take those precautions, then you might get coronavirus by just going to the hospital.
21
@Chris McDonough
@Chris McDonough The new hospital is modeled upon another hospitalization Beijing that has successfully quarantined and treated 1/7 of all SARS patients in 2003. Although it used pre-fab material, it has All the functions required for infection control, negatively pressured rooms, clean passage for personnel, waste water containment/treatment, etc...
3
@Chris McDonough First, one must admit that the two points you provided are important in constructing hospitals. Second, if the author could provide more information on the two hospitals, one can find these are not just built using modular, they are, if not all, equipped with "negative pressure" rooms and medical equipment for treating the patients. Also, these two hospitals have constructed water and air treatment facilities, which are dedicated to containing the virus
@Chris McDonough From what I've read, these rooms were built with the pressure to contain virus.
1
My hat is off to these Chinese workers.
They are doing what we in America could do at one time.
One does not have to agree with the communist dictators in Beijing.
But the system over the years have produced a system that is an envy of the world.
I have been to China many times.
I have also ridden the Tibet train - the highest at some 15,000 ft in the world.
Chinese had hired Swiss engineers to help them with this train.
The Swiss advised them to abandon the project as technically next to impossible.
China thanked them, paid them and saw them off
And they finished the job without any foreign assistance.
11
@Neil Citing Tibet train as an example of Chinese exceptionalism is a true sign that you don't understand China.
1
@Neil ,great insight!
@Neil
Did it occur to you that China is a dictatorship, and that's why the government can order something and it gets done immediately? No debate. No money issues. No labor or materials issues.
2
While China as a whole is developing at an astronomical speed, as compared to the stagnant US, all those new infrastructure are built on the stamina, blood and sweat, of hardworking and extremely low paying migrant workers.
7
@Jaime
It is the availability of work such as these that lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in a few decades. The migrant workers from rural areas willingly and gratefully accepted such work that give them the opportunity to improve their livelihood. Some of the work are definitely demanding, but people accept their wages as determined by the reality of the economy and the supply and demand of labor. Would you prefer they wallow in poverty waiting for US$15 per hour?
1
China has a system that prioritizes on getting things done for its people, and in cases like this, as quickly as possible. In the US, it is bickering ad infinitum. Just imagine the red tape and endless blaming if a serious outbreak happened. And it had! Look up the 2009 H1N1 pandemic which affected more than 1 million people and killed nearly 20,000. It started either in the US or Mexico, got barely any of the attention Coronavirus has today, which also goes the excessive amount of attention and often sensationalizing has more to do with politics than actual health.
6
Here in Los Angeles with our overwhelming homelessness crises and lack of affordable shelter, bureaucratic and environmental red tape and NIMBYism, we could use some Chinese can do.
9
Maybe they should do Trump’s wall.
6
It’s already finished- you didn’t hear?
The pictures show mostly MEN building these projects.
Virus is effecting over 70% of MALES --say stats
71% of cases were Male.
The WHO, in its FAQs, (2019-nCoV).
2
When you can forcibly relocate citizens who have no legal recourse, ignore environmental impacts, shrug at shoddy workmanship, ignore actual market feedback because markets don't exist, and the companies you use to build something are state-owned, yeah, you can build stuff really fast.
Probably not something to marvel at, though. Really more a nightmare than a marvel.
13
@Jordan, when u have an epidemic, resourceful minds think about saving people first. What they did is a marvel
2
@Benson Moono A whole lot of evil has been done in the name of "saving" people. The only thing that prevents it is civil rights, which the Chinese don't have, economic rights, which the Chinese don't have, and the rule of law, which the Chinese don't have.
This is only a marvel if you're happy to chop off your head because your beard needs trimming.
I am impressed and thankful they are putting a full court press on this increasingly likely pandemic. When it hits here lets all be as ready as possible.
4
And in NYC it takes 5 years to fix the escalator in Grand Central. Five years! Thanks Cuomo. Thanks De Blasio.
11
I remember the massive 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Sichuan shares a border with Hubei. Such slapdash buildings will crumble and kill perhaps thousands in the next sizable earthquake. This hospital is a typical, transparent attempt at authoritarian self-congratulation.
6
@Eggs & Oatmeal
Sichuan DOES NOT share a border to Hubei. Wuhan is
Well, here the Senator will finish put the Presidential impeachment hearing in a month. All things can be hurried, depends on your priority.
2
It never ceases to amaze me that regardless of the situation, so many people treat it as yet another opportunity for China bashing. I suppose if a Chinese could walk on water, there would be scathing comments on how pathetic that the Chinese could not even swim. This is a crisis that affects human beings, like us. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
22
@BMWrite
I believe the issue is that of quality of the building and the fact the infrastructure wasn't there in the first place.
People bash china not for being Chinese, but due to their government and social, religious and political policy.
lets use your analogy of walking on water, people arent criticizing them for not swimming, but using it as a potential way to enforce something politically or militarily.
2
@BMWrite , thanks for your great observation. Some people just live to criticize..
3
China can build the biggest material thing in the word, but can’t build the smallest thing in its peoples and the world ( trust)
5
@Z.m as if the world trusts the US? We are the laughing stock of the world.
2
@Z.m
The Chinese government is the most trusted government in the world -- for several years now. See this detailed report from the Edelman Trust Barometer (a Western organization): https://www.edelman.com/trustbarometer
I’ve seen enough videos of buildings collapsing in China to know that this will probably not go well
5
That the Chinese government and its workers can put together a building so quickly to treat those who are suffering from this disease is an amazing feat.
If it is going to help people NOW when it is needed, then so be it. Hopefully, post outbreak, the government will make sure it is a sturdy building. Until then, the old saying, “any port in a storm” comes to mind.
4
And this is an ideal example of why China will dominate the world. If they want to do something they do it. Here is the US it would take 10 months for local politicians to decide on whose name would be on the building or which Senators son would sit on the construction company's board.
9
My question is, what materials did the Chinese construction companies, or the government itself use as the foundations for the hospital?
That area of the world is not immune to earthquakes.
Does it take many days for cement once poured into a rebar matrix to dry and set? The other components, electrical, HVAC, and plumbing can be installed but the time necessary to dry the cement?
8
@RR I agree. My dad was a structural engineer who specialized in concrete, and he was always stressing that it needs to be "slowly" cured and set. There was a bridge in Vancouver that was poured and built in a week, and it needed resurfacing every other year after that because the concrete was not set properly. My guess is exactly what you're saying...the world with be drawn to Chinese ingenuity and how they "get things done" quickly, but as soon as that first earthquake hits and their hospital collapses I'm sure they won't be so proud of their achievement.
3
@RR precast foundation, prefab construction
1
@RR Wuhan in general doesn't suffer from earthquakes compared with Sichuan or other mountainous provinces. They poured the cement 10 days ago, on the first day of construction.
3
We should stop and consider what we would do here in the U.S. if faced with a similarly large outbreak in a major city and suddenly found ourselves in need of thousands of additional hospital beds. Could we do something similar if need be and with the same speed? I hope someone is planning for such an eventuality, but I have my doubts in a country that thinks cutting the CDC’s budget is a good way to save money.
17
@Julie W.
They didn't build what we would normally call a hospital. They build what we would normally call a Quarantine Center and yes, we could put up a Pre-Fab building to house 1000 people in same amount of time IF we had some need to do that. We have actual Hospitals already built that will do the job much better when we face such a need.
16
@GregP You’re more optimistic than I am. I recall that during the Ebola outbreak a few years back that a major hospital in Dallas was unable to provide adequate protective clothing to its nursing staff, resulting in the only transmissions that occurred in this country from patient to health care provider. And they were only caring for a single patient.
8
@Julie W. The only person who died in that situation was the original carrier who came from Liberia after lying about coming in contact with people who had the virus. The hospital coordinated closely with the CDC from the time they confirmed he had ebola. The nurse who contracted the virus was wearing the proper PPE after the first time the carrier visted the hospital. They had no reason to believe that he had the virus on the first visit.
4
This isn't the Olympics. China needs a public health system. That requires sharing information in a timely fashion. This isn't China's first virus rodeo, but it's its first with the world's full attention from the beginning.
8
If the buildings are only two stories tall as they seem to be in the pictures, then not much different in construction that today's big box stores here in the US.
3
@Susan in NH They are actually pretty different. These "hospitals" were built using modular construction, which big box stores are not.
2
Not exactly a soaring monument to the triumph of the human spirit, architecturally, but I suppose if it gets the job done that's what really matters most anyway when you're sick with a deadly virus.
Bars on the windows?!? This looks way more like a prison than a hospital.
15
@joymmoran Not only bars on the windows, all doors can't be opened from inside the rooms.
2
@joymmoran It is a prison. They did the same thing for SARS in 2003. Contain all infected. Most of them died.
3
From a Foucaultian perspective, yes, hospitals and prisons are not much different.
5
May be China can train a medical doctor in ten days too.
4
@Trevor Diaz
Sour grapes?
In China, medical universities provide a 6 year undergraduate medical curriculum for students who have completed high school leading to Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery which has one year’s internship program inclusive.
After graduation, a young doctor needs to complete 3–6 years residency training, some need extended training for sub specialty. Internal medicine usually takes 3–4 years residency training, but surgical specialties may takes 5–8 years to complete the training.
6
Many will criticize this as a building that will fall down soon and be a piece of junk.
They all miss the point that this could not be done with capitalism; it would take years to build a hospital of this size here. I might say JUST ONE OF the horrors of capitalism.
The point is a crisis is at hand and they are solving it IN DAYS! Get the people with the disease isolated and treated. Get to the problem immediately and solved. You can watched the buildings fall apart later when the problem is solved.
Big problems no longer get solved in America; some call it the decline of America and I agree. Health care insurance problems are killing people and keeping them insecure and up at night and hurting their children; we have money wasted by the trillions on our 800 military bases and military industrial complex; the atomic scientists pointed out this week the fact twe are getting closer and closer to nuclear war (100 minutes to midnight on their "clock); corruption is rampant in our government where the wealthy and corporations keep themselves rich and powerful while the poor get poorer; life span decreases and the suicide rate increases in; we have gun murders of huge proportions and ignore our children. Countries like Finland are glorious, happy countries, far happier than people in America. On and on I could go.
So you should be complaining about your own country, not that China is "showing "authoritarianism." You get lied to by our president several times a day, etc.
30
@Frank
Could we do this? Yes. It is essentially a medical warehouse. Could we build what you consider a US standard acute-care hospital this quickly? NO one can. They are not, either.
4
@Frank The problem is they didn't get to the problem immediately. After several swine and avian virus outbreaks in the past two decades alone, they have done nothing to enhance the prevention of outbreaks of this kind.
Comparing the US health care system to the Chinese is pretty laughable, but continue on with your American doomsday mindset.
We could easily set up a 1,000 bed center made out of shipping containers. This is about quarantine, not medical care. The people laying in those beds will have nowhere near the standards that we expect here in the US.
43
@Jon We couldn't, and we won't.
We can't even agree to repair aging infrastructure. Maybe we should adopt some Chinese methods?
7
By building pre-fab/modular buildings for emergency situations?
8
@Eric
Thanks but I prefer a real public health system to this ad hoc response.
6
This would take a year in the U.S.
And that would just be for permit approvals.
11
@Dave Ron Blane It would not. That's the whole idea behind states of emergency. Permits would not apply.
1
@Dave Ron Blane
Interesting recent article on National Review* website about why US research scientists are taking money from Chinese government. They aren't saddled with all kinds of regulations and diversity, etc., requirements demanded by our federal bureaucracy.
From the article:
"Since any given proposal has a 20 percent chance of being approved, researchers devote 170 days to proposal-writing for every grant they’re awarded."
****************
* "Why American Scientists Take Chinese Money"
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/02/charles-lieber-case-why-american-scientists-take-chinese-money/
3
@AACNY
Mostly it’s because it is available. US foundational science research dollars are shrinking and the position if the executive branch is to scuttle as much basic research as can be scuttled and/or discredited.
This quote from the article reads:
“The city government needed to build the makeshift hospital quickly using prefabricated units to ease a persistent shortage of hospital beds and medical supplies.”
So they only build hospitals when people are dying?
@Kirk
People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
A growing physician shortage nationwide, which is hitting impoverished urban and rural regions hardest, is projected to create a deficit of up to 120,000 doctors by 2030 and seriously undermine patient care, according to a 2018 report by the Association of American Medical Colleges.
At the same time, the shuttering hospitals in rural America has exacerbated shortages in many communities. Since 2010, dozens of rural hospitals have closed and as many as 430 other hospitals across 43 states are at high risk of shutting their doors.
The US now ranks 27th in the world for its levels of healthcare and education. This represents a significant decline from 1990, when it ranked sixth.
16
@Wang An Shih don't worry Trump is on it.
1
@Wang An Shih
You missed my point completely.
I’ll quote a different sentence from the article. It reads:
“The city government is attempting a feat recalling the SARS epidemic of 2003, when Beijing built a hospital in a week.”
This seems to be a pattern of behavior. Build a makeshift hospital when there is an epidemic.
This is not a judgement on healthcare in the USA, lack of doctors or hospitals in rural areas, etc. You are correct and I will not argue. In fact, I am in agreement.
This is a Stakhanovite experiment, designed to dazzle all who might have lost faith into China's Communist regime. A dash of heroics that is supposed to cover the root cause of this crisis - a total governance failure of local government in Wuhan and a botched reaction of the party leaders in Beijing.
I hope that this tragic episode will prod China to solve the issues of unsanitary markets, food supply standards and safety and a health system that is inadequate in handling the needs of 1.3Bn population and the possible health emergencies like this one.
13
If only US would build a network of high speed railroad like the Chinese built in twice to time - it would an amazing accomplishment!
We have the technical capabilities but the red tape is abusive, well beyond reasonable. Especially when considering the economic and environmental benefits...
5
NYC tried to update its subway after 100 years. It's sort of close.
9
Why does the new hospital have bars on all the windows? This suggests it is built to serve as a quarantine/confinement facility. A more ominous implication.
12
@Jeff - Perhaps after Coronavirus crisis passes same facility might be used as prison - er - dormitory - for displaced Uighur factory workers.
@Jeff
Why is quarantine of ill people to save the lives of millions of others “ominous”? Sounds pretty humane to me.
Great job An example of what can be done when a government sees the need and takes care of it. If it were a fire;then we would not be surprised at the quick response. In America we fight fires better than almost any country. In the area of health care we are not the envy of the world
2
To all those saying this is an incredible accomplishment that the US could never achieve need to understand that this is not a permanent structure.
You can't compare building a bridge that needs to last 50 years to a bunch of shipping containers set up to be temporary housing for hospital beds. This is also not a fully functioning hospital, and 1,400 medical staff is not nearly enough to fully support 1,000 beds unless the purpose is quarantine and basic care (i.e., providing IVs and medication).
This is about quarantine.
If an epidemic like the 1919 flu breaks out in the US again, we would respond as quickly and effectively. We also have better medical infrastructure already in place in urban centers. We also are more focused on prevention rather than the response in the absence of prevention.
12
@Jon Really? Where was the 1000 bed hospital built during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? Or more recently, Puerto Rico? This administration apparently couldn't even ship supplies to that Island when they found out there is water all around it.
As an immigrant and naturalized citizen I am quite proud of my adopted country, but one thing I dislike is the extreme reliance on past glory. This country has been great for a long time, but we need to get off our rear ends and reclaim that glory. First step: Health care for all, then economic empowerment for all, then we rebuild our infrastructure.
Right now, if anything happens that requires a massive national effort to defend against, be it a world ware, natural disaster or pandemic, we would be toast.
191
@Jon
Ah yes! I too remember Hurricane Katrina.
2
@Armin You have absolutely no idea what materials are in the shipping containers they are using to build their "hospital."
Does China have healthcare for all? Economic empowerment for all? If so, why do they keep having these types of outbreaks, and why do they not have the proper medical facilities already in place?
Most first-world nations can easily build a quarantine facility like this one that is made out of shipping containers. Most also focus on prevention rather than reaction, unlike China. Most also have the required facilities already in place so they don't have to respond in this type of way.
We rushed to provide trailers after Katrina, just as the Chinese are rushing to build this facility. Remember how well that turned out for us?
i remember a country that used to build ships in 30 days
11
Just goes to show that when you throw everything possible into it, the impossible can be achieved. It is a shame that the Chinese government was not more pro-active when the earliest patients came in over two months ago.
6
@It Is Time! I think that we should wait until the virus hits the US and compare the two reactions to the crisis.
Q: Why is China panicking now?
A: Because their state system was too busy crushing dissent and covering up how bad the virus was when it first presented.
Much like the Soviet coverup of Chernobyl. This is classic authoritarianism. Deny, deny, deny. Coverup, coverup, coverup, until such a time as it becomes impossible to hide the truth. Then, AFTER there is an emergency, mobilize orders of magnitude more resources than it would have taken to prevent the emergency, after the fact, just to try to contain it.
If China would have been transparent from the get go and mobilized international response teams, they could have contained this threat to Wuhan, and they wouldn’t NEED to build a hospital in 10 days.
11
@Austin Ouellette
Chernobyl had the added problem of bureaucrats never giving their superiors bad news. They had no capacity to actually bring elevate this information to the president.
As The Times reported, the initial response in Iran to the destruction of that plane was similar to this. The mullahs were advised Iran did it but wanted to withhold the information for several reasons, one of which was they didn't want the US to gain an advantage. The Iranian president, once advised, threatened to quit if they didn't come clean.
With totalitarian regimes, the initial response will always be to protect themselves. In the case of a pandemic that has serious consequences for the safety of their citizens. Unfortunately, they don't really matter.
1
@Austin Ouellette
"Transparent?" Have you been watching Trump's team lately?
3
@Wang An Shih
Seriously? Our system has a remedy when people try to withhold information.
It's called the "judiciary".
1
The environmental impact studies here would delay groundbreaking by 5 years.
9
@Midwest Josh
You exaggerate, but yes in the US there would be some environmental studies that would need to be completed before building a structure of this size. I for one am glad that we do these studies, for the health of the environment overall and everyone in the area is more important than hastily constructing a building.
There are probably more codes and inspections in the US, another safeguard that ultimately benefits us in the long run.
15
God forbid we care about the environment.
3
As usual and worthwhile, we discuss the pros and cons of building a hospital in 10 days or 7. This deals with the ideas of democracy, efficiency and usefulness versus quality Some say hooray fro throwing it up fast, other concerned that it is a piece of junk and will soon be falling apart and hence a waste. Others note the bars on the windows implying the state will be "locking" people up.
A good human discussion about communism versus democracy; the decline of America versus the rise of China; the problem of overpopulation and the spread of disease and the concern about commodities and destruction of the planet; global climate disaster versus can we save the species and the planet; human creativity versus human greed, hate and the other seven sins.
I wonder when we shall get answers to these questions and become able to see the fate of our species?
7
@Frank
Frank, I think our fate is to be constitutionally short-sighted and emotionally unable to face the seriousness of the questions you pose.
5
@Frank ---You have good questions but a Commited Global Groupthink about the Health of the Planet will stay as a dream. Divided we shall remain.
This is amazing. Keep at it China - you can beat the problem in no time.
7
That's insane. For many people, it's two weeks in between paychecks. When I heard they were building a thousand bed hospital in 10 days, I thought it would look like an army installation with temporary structures and such. That looks like a complete two-story facility with nice walkways all around. I wonder if it has a food court.
73
@Mark
Compares favorably with our relief efforts in Puerto Rico.
15
@Norman
Wow I just remember that fiasco. Natural disaster response time / impact between the Greatest Country in the World with Quality and Evil Backwards Authoritarian Dictator with Low Standards. Sometimes I wonder if Americans actually understand what's going on in the world around them. Basic fundamental needs always trump ideology and higher needs such as freedom of speech, privacy, and other non-vital needs. Yet at times I wonder if freedoms like speech and privacy even exists. If quality of service (Flint, MI, NYC MTA, PHL roads), was even an edge that Americans have anymore.
9
Yes, it’s a feat. But yet the ‘hospital’ looks not much different from a sea of modular construction trailers one sees all over China, albeit on a grander and connected scale. Time will tell whether it can operate as an hospital with the appropriate technology and qualified personnel. If this can be accomplished during a time of crisis, why can China not use such party determination during normal times and improve upon a healthcare system which is derided by most of its citizens?
5
@Beijinger I don't think it is intended to be a fully operational hospital facility. It was put up in a hurry to deal with an emergency situation.
2
This is an expedient hospital built with prefab buildings: a useful response, but not an engineering marvel. It's been slower to construct than a military field hospital would have been. The model for disasters and outbreaks elsewhere has been to expand quickly using containerized modules and tents.
9
Agreed, David. It looks mostly like another publicity campaign designed to evoke national pride and Red awe.
2
Undeniably impressive. But that’s only the beginning. Furniture, supplies, staffing, supervisory and record keeping systems...all this and more has to be in place for a hospital to function.
3
@David ....also electrical and plumbing
Okay so the Chinese can build a new hospital in a week. Meanwhile Trump struggles to build a useless wall across the desert. Welcome to the decline of America.
39
@Steve
Okay, Trump cannot simply order it and make it so...as much as he would crave such power. Is that the type of government you want?
@Steve
one, the Wall is a fence
two, the hospital is a bunch of trailers and is a very low quality.
Three, I think both governments are falling apart, china overacts and causes political dissent by trying to crush it, the USA is too caught up infighting to deal international politics as effectively.
And one last thing about china, doesn't matter how fast you build things, how rich you get, nations can still be horrible and fall. Money isnt a sign of a nation doing good all the time.
Please, don't forget that China has a long history of deciding to do something big and then doing it at the expense of quality, the environment, liberty, individuals, ethnic groups, etc. While it may seem impressive, China has a rich history of covering up the costs and the quality is typically not great. It reminds me a bit of Arrested Development and building a fake house to fool the investors.
Additionally, only one other comment noticed the bars on the windows. This is not a hospital, it's a place to force people to go to and isolate them while they are sick. Will they receive treatment? Will it be humane? Who knows?
Ultimately, this is not a model to aspire to.
33
@Martin and please, don’t forget that if it’s built in 5 years, it’s useless
1
@Jason Maybe, IDK.
Build Hospitals of quality in high population centers BEFORE a plague appears?
So it doesn't need to be so fast?
@Jason my point is that many people here are pointing to this as some great example of how the US should behave. I agree, they need to do something in case they face an immediate plague, I'm just saying it's not a laudable example for us to follow.
1
No way they poured concrete foundations, tied rebar, installed elect/plumbing in 10 days. The building couldn't be inspected in that period. I declare it will fall down on the patients.
7
@NJerseyEd Was thinking the same thing. Concrete does not harden quickly enough to allow a non-prefab building to go up in less than 2 weeks.
1
@Lynne
There are all kinds of concrete with different properties. For example, Quikrete available here in US will set in 20-40 minutes, and bear 1,000 psi compressive load in 24 hours.
It takes months to get an appt with my Dr in my town of 100,000 people, and when I do they can hardly be bothered to do anything more than take my BP. I don't want to even think of how terrible this would be if Coronavirus hits my city or any other similar community in the USofA. But not to worry, we have a very stable genius steering the ship....America. Yippee!!
19
This is an advantage of authoritarian governments. However, when we think back on different moments in U.S. history like the response to Pearl Harbor and the New Deal, Americans are not incapable of harnessing their considerable abilities to a accomplish common goal. Instead of wasting our time downplaying an admirable response by the Chinese, it's time we think about why our government is currently so dysfunctional. It's not just about throwing out regulations so that we have to address the same problems that originated those regulations 5 to 10 years down the line. It would be nice if the brilliant minds that figured out how to deliver media garbage and deception on a global scale to manipulate voters for the highest bidder would set themselves the goal of working for something we could all feel satisfied by, such as consensus building for a better future.
8
I wonder if the building is built with safety standards in mind, or if it will simply collapse one day.
2
Imagine if we mustered this kind of response to the water system in Flint ...
27
I think the ability to slap together a hospital in 10 days is one of the more exciting and positive aspects of a totalitarian government.
2
@John Ehh,, the religious, political, and sexual discrimination, the quality of said hospitals and the lack of freedom is a big cost IMO.
Not sure why they have bars on the windows. Maybe those prefab units were designed for prisons or toy factories.
7
@hamishdad it's a contagious disease, so if you check in you wont be checking out to harm others
1
This is certainly the upside of what authoritarian governments can do. Probably not the best of work for the long term, but impressive nonetheless.
3
It is interesting how they are building the hospital since it literally looks like shipping containers put together. Instead of building a concrete hospital from scratch, they put many equally shape rectangular boxes together to form the hospital. My gut says this hospital isn't mean to be permanent since it was built so quickly utilizing pre-built units. But it makes sense to build something quickly that will suffice. I think it is a good plan for any future pandemic.
2
The US Military could combine its deploy-able Hospital infrastructure and do this too. Provided they were given a site to do it. Otherwise the environmental impact lawsuits would go on for seven to 10 years.
6
Kinda like a lot of the remarkable accomplishment I see there. Shenzen blows me away.
Our democracy does severely complicate matters.
Perhaps we should start our version of this now. It is long know global warming would increase disease. The buildings could be designed for multiple social purposes.
1
We returned from four and a half years living in Wuhan last year. Our first apartment, in a “high end” community, had major plumbing issues. Wallpaper peeled from the walls, black mold spread from a corner in the bathroom, tubs and showers leaked, and a fine debris sifted down from damp ceilings. Tiles came loose and fell from building sides and from stairwell steps. This was a newer building, less than 10 years old. The apartment we moved to later had uneven concrete stairwell steps. I tried to climb them as part of a workout. Impossible to do without tripping. When our undermount sink dropped down into the vanity, they just glued it back on. The leaky ceiling? Just spread some quick dry concrete over it.
We were lucky. Our coworkers kitchen caught on fire due to faulty wiring. The whole house nearly burnt down.
The development speed is astounding, and it may look impressive from a distance, but the buildings in Wuhan aren’t made well and aren’t built to last. And I don’t believe any are truly safe.
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@Karen
My nephew's apartment in Shanghai which I stayed in in 2013 was very well built and had many amenities. And the older areas of the city were being retrofitted with sewers and new water lines. Same with the hotels we stayed in during our travels. And the airports make ours look like dumps!
And did you notice that there was mention of trees waiting to be planted? Whenever trees are removed for reconstruction, they are saved and replanted with major supports until they reroot and leaf out. In my landscape construction past we moved many large trees with success, but not on the scale of China.
16
@Susan in NH I would guess there are multiple standards at work here. Cities that get foreign tourists have standards closer to what we are used to. Otherwise the tourist trade would dry up.
9
@Karen. What you described is the same everywhere in the former Soviet Union, in Eastern Europe, and even in countries such as Italy and Brazil.
4
This is a remarkable achievement. But the biggest limitation to expansion of medical facilities is not buildings or equipment, it is manpower. Every city in China can build additional hospitals if they need to. Where are they going to get the doctors and nurses to staff them? That too in the middle of an ever expanding epidemic, where doctors and nurses will among the first to get infected.
6
@A Cynic
make sure everyone wash their hands and faces regularly. That is more effective than wearing masks.
How can you make such a statement? When the medical community is just learning about this virus? Please don't spread misinformation. Masks are almost certainly essential to prevent infection for healthcare workers. it doesn't mean that everyone needs one to ride the subway but please read CDC and WHO statements before you tell us what to do.
@Till
I can make this statement because I work in a high risk profession myself. I fully expect to get infected if this worsens into a pandemic. I am well aware of relevant statements and guidelines of various organizations. It is part of my job. And I don't think that I told anyone to do anything.
1
What is interesting in the photos is the sky. Is that misty weather or frightening levels of air pollution? Much can be done very quickly, if we ignore the environment.
10
@The Poet McTeagle Most of the time it would be pollution due to all the factories in this city. However, I'm guessing most factories are closed now.
1
Think of how our government responded to the disaster in New Orleans.
Perhaps this hospital is only a containment unit. And I am certain that it was not designed to be like a traditional hospital that treats all kinds of issues like traumatic injury, births, rehabilitation, etc. I'm sure it doesn't do research. But it probably does exactly what is needed under the circumstances. Bravo.
27
Astonishing accomplishment. I can't fathom how they managed this feat. The just-in-time logistics alone boggle the mind.
24
A government that works for the people can draw upon its resources to respond quickly to emergencies. This is no fancy, designer hospital with a lobby that resembles an upscale mall. Built with prefabricated units with readily available medical equipment and staffed by public employees it can meet the sort of emergency brought on by an epidemic. Kudos to China.
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@Marvin Raps
That "government that works for the people" is a dictatorship. Its the primary reason a project like this can be done so fast.
There is no debate, no questions, no issues of labor or materials cost. The nation simply mobilizes with top-down orders.
If you want big things done this quickly, install a dictator.
3
Criticize China all you want, but give credit where it’s due. Constructing that hospital at a lightning pace is remarkable by any standard.
195
I was once from Vegas. Speedy construction of casinos (the table games, medical, food market variety or gambling any otherwise) is from the 1990s.
3
@Inall A 1000 patient hospital in 10 days? Uh, I don’t think so. PS- how long has The Stardust site been under construction?
2
If they’re laying concrete, they’re not building in the 21st century.
2
@Inall What is better to lay other than concrete? They are fighting for lives, no time for high -tech or environmental concern.
3
Well let's see, Bats, eating wild animals infected with bat carried viruses, agricultural contamination by pollution of mixed species like ducks and pigs, no regulation about seem to be working well in China, that we know of.
Far better and less dramatic to have spent the effort and money with all this autocratic power to have educated the populace about these practices, both culturally and intellectually, answered protein requirements so even the poorest people did not have to resort to eating wild infected animals, and strong inspection and sanitary regulations against them being sold to the public as food.
Lack of regulation has gotten the world swine flu, bird flu, SARs virus and now this new corona virus.
Well, I'd say with my grandmother that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," and some well placed regulations would have prevented a hospital or two needing to be build in 10 days.
Very dramatic action, no doubt, but won't bring back the close to almost 400 dead so far that strong regulations and education would have saved.
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@mouseone
You’re right to a certain extent—but I can’t say things are that much better in places like the US with the antivaxxers bringing back stuff like measles
16
@mouseone
Yes proactive Education is a good idea but it hasn't been a 100% success here either. Exhibit 1, denial of climate change. Plenty of ignorance to go around. This response still seems very robust compared to the Puerto Rican hurricane.
17
@Mrs Ming . . .I agree and would add that hurricanes, although very destructive, aren't "catchy" so people are not so motivated to work on alleviating the suffering they cause.
No one in the WH or DC can get sick from a hurricane in Puerto Rico. Self interest and greed tend to be serious governmental motivations.
4
There is a message here, the way China gets things accomplished and the way our country might respond.
There is of course no way a modern fully functioning hospital can be completely built in 10 days, however building rooms with dormitory type accomodations for quarantine is a distinct possibility .
Yet look beyond the hospital, consider the single minded determination needed to even consider a project of this kind. What if that determination were applied to a different set of parameters. Space, weapons, pseudo capitalism which we see now. Monopolistic practices so overwhelming they could alter the very path of humanity.
Tough opponents for a divided people. Then you wonder, who is it dividing us and for what purpose ?
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@Tom ,Retired Florida Junkman
Tom, today's news is great, what the actual picture might be is more opaque. 'Tomorrow's news' could offer a somewhat different picture.
I admit some progress in this area of a seemingly new virus, is preferable to none; like stonewalling at the start. One can applaud the effort for now.
2
@Tom ,Retired Florida Junkman -- It's clear, Tom, who's dividing American from American and why. If the greatest fulfillment a Trumpster gets is seeing a liberal Pwn'd or sharing a hyperbolic lie on Lyin' Facebook, the MAGA minds have taken us to a grade school kind of society that doesn't bode well for any of us.
Reading this makes me wonder whether democracies are "better", when the capabilities of communist style military rule would seem to give that society an adaptive edge toward meeting disaster demands. The Times ran an article that the Chinese authorities stifled the reporting of the disease in a claimed affront to freedom, well the other side of the coin is those authorities built a hospital in ten days....so it's a mixed bag. We can always say freedom is more important [although do we really have that here if we aren't entitled to fair elections anymore?] but survivability and adaptation are perhaps more important toward the future of our species.
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@Ricky The LOCAL authorities stifled news, unwilling to report "bad news", as seems often a problem in communist systems. It was ok for Mao, of course, but Xi says he gets it, recognizes it is something that must be addressed. So I don't fault him. They've long had ineffective and corrupt local systems. No doubt they're hard to control, as one replaces another and is then corrupted. Luckily it's less widespread than it once was.
@Elaine local governments withhold information until its release is authorized by Beijing.
1
Haste makes waste. I guarantee this building will have a host of latent issues which will reveal themselves in due time.
Trust me you do not want critical facilities built in 10 days!
Low concrete strength? Design errors? Poor craftsmanship? Boss says we cant stop- we promised 10 days!!!!
23
@Engineer
You are certainly thinking like an Engineer. Perhaps it is a temporary hospital. Perhaps it will be torn down next year. Who cares. They did the impossible. They did what was absolutely necessary. We should all be extremely happy that they did it.
Or maybe it is a fine hospital that will last for 50 years. I swore that it could not be done, and I was wrong. And I am very happy that I was wrong.
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@Engineer China has built hundreds/thousands of these prefab form buildings in times that are just absolutely astounding. Many are over 25 years old and standing just fine. In the US, you couldn't even get together for a meeting in 10 days much less begin to pour a foundation. Regulation can be good but it can also work against common sense. Look at what happened to Puerto Rico. 3 years later and still in shambles. We couldn't get anything right for the people there.
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@Engineer Have you ever bee in an operating room? Other than the lights and HVAC it is all about the equipment and the skilled individuals who use it.
3
Is that a hospital or a prison? Anyone notice bars on all windows?
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@LB Maybe the window bars prevent people from breaking into the hospital for treatment?
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@JT or breaking out to infect/kill other people?
1
I am so skeptical. Just because they built something that looks like a hospital, is it and how do they make it work? Where’s the staff? How is it equipped? What systems are in place? We have a set piece wall on our Southern border. Are these hospitals built in mere days just set pieces too?
6
Every single room has air conditions, air purifier, TV, hot water, and every thing you can find in the US hospitals. In addition, since the hospital uses for the treatment for infected illness, the hospital has specialized designed drain system for preventing the waste to become another source of infection.
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How do you know what you are telling us about its function is true? Have you been there? I am still skeptical.
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@Sasha
Ah, conspiracy.
I am literally gobsmacked! Time to admit that China is and will be a world power for the next 100 years and more...
8
This is an example of quick decisions and actions, something the western government can only wish of doing. If an outbreak this size were to occur in the US, it would have taken months due to build a new facility due to all the regulations, unions, government approvals involved. Yes quality is not good as Americans repeatedly exaggerates, but its better than to not having any heath care or waiting months for more people to get infected and die.
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@Nyu Whatever. Our laws, regulations, unions all exist not to create red tape but to protect workers, consumers, environment, etc. And they are all the result of a long and hard struggle. While I may marvel at such quick construction, I do not deceive myself into thinking that it's the result of anything more than a totalitarian regime, certainly not anything to envy or wish we had here.
46
Quick decisions and actions in this case would have started with proper food market regulations and policing the stallholders of the still “developing nation”.
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@Nyu I'm wondering how they can coordinate all of the materials necessary to get this hospital built while the existing hospitals are running out of supplies to test and treat existing patients.
5
I see a common thread in comments in this section that a bridge would take 10 years to be build in the US. That is not true. The I-35 bridge over the Mississippi River that collapsed in downtown Minneapolis several years ago serves as an example. Between clearing the debris, designing the new bridge, construction and opening to traffic with all safety regulations in place it took 15 months to build the bridge. And let's not forget that within these 15 months there were 7 months were frigid Minnesota winter weather to deal with.
I only have great job to say to all the people that worked on this major construction work, while still remembering the lives lost during the fall of the old bridge.
35
That’s not a hospital. It’s a quarantine ward.
138
How do you know? Yes you need A LOT of negative pressure rooms and you better install bars on those windows. Did those complaining about that forget that all Western countries have quarantined their own citizens that had been airlifted? I'm a pulmonologist and this is exactly the hospital I would want in Wuhan right now, as far as I can tell from afar. And no, they won't have patient advocates and music therapy there and maybe the patient's won't even be able to order gluten free food 😱.
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@Mike_F ~
My guess is that is a very high tech "quarantine" ward, not like the owners from the Spanish flu in gymnasiums.
Buit indeed, there are probably not operating rooms and what we call ER's, or physical therapy facilities.
Probably no chapels or chaplains, either.
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@Till
Thank you sir. You hit the nail right on the head.
4
The same people applauding this dictatorship's ability to literally cram down constructions projects like this and others (e.g., the trains & airports) would be screaming bloody murder if the same practices were applied here. And anytime an administration wants to ease up on the endless regulations and years of environmental review/impact statements they're piloried at the post. The hypocrisy is priceless.
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@New York
I imagine the difference in this case is the life threatening urgency of the matter. Building another high rise or a cross country oil pipeline isn’t.
12
@New York
With Republicans in control we can have the best of both worlds, no regulations and no hospital. And no hypocrisy, just all pervasive and all consuming corruption as far as the eye can see. And it's all legal now.
4
Concrete slabs need weeks to cure for full hardness, not days. I be terrified to go in the building and I wouldnt be surprised to see it collapse 3 days after it opens.
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@bayboat
Quikrete available here would set in 40 minutes and support 1,000 psi compressive load in 24 hours.
1
@bayboat
If you need a ventilator to live, you might change your mind.
They have the most extensive high speed rail system in the world. A hospital in ten days or so. Maybe the quality of construction may not be up to elite standards, but the Chinese get stuff done.
We let Trump bully allies and the Senate is ready to exonerate. Political gridlock is just the beginning of the end of American civilization.
21
If Americans didn’t demand safety nor a living wage, anything can be built quickly. Communism seems like everyone’s cup of tea during this disaster but don’t forget that the original infection was due to the government refusal to admit it was possible for the Coronavirus to spread human to human. They also arrested the person who brought the issue to their attention. And the lack of western-type regulations allowed wild meat to be sold in dirty, overcrowded open markets. But hey, the Chinese get things done, whether the people live through it or not.
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@M C D Please be fair, they didn't deny corona virus could be passed between human, they did not know or they just didn't have evidence to prove it. Science is science. As doctors and experts of virus, you can not afford to fabricate or make assumption. You need proof before you can give recommendation or you just ruin your credibility. All that takes time.
@M C D /if Americans did not demand safety nor a living wage anything can be built quickly/
Are you sure? built by American?
A hospital is not just a place to warehouse sick people.
A hospital needs lots of highly trained staff. The usual number in the US is roughly 4 staff per each bed, don't know about China. Will they have around 4000 doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, x-ray techs, and so on, and on, on the premises immediately? oh, and experienced in care of pneumonias rather than, say, obstetrics?
A hospital needs laboratories, and oh! the equipment and reagents, which need to be held at correct temperatures in order to retain accuracy.
A pharmacy, again with the temperature problem.
Shall I continue? or just summarize by concluding that the US will just muddle through with the hospitals we have
9
@Linda
Clearly this not being done for traditional capacity, but for containment.
It may later be upgraded to a typical acute-care hospital as was the flash-built one for SARS.
9
If a medical emergency of this magnitude ever presented itself in the U.S. , we would meet it with an equal urgency. A two story structure is an easier construction because it has less safety concerns than a bridge, tunnel or a multi level building .
11
@Pete
Moreover, the hospital can be tore down once the crisis is over, or it can be allowed to rotten or collapse once the media attention goes away.
@BWCA Indeed....just like the Olympic facilities that were neglected the day after the 2008 Beijing games ended.
This is a stunning accomplishment and a lesson for our country. Try to build a hospital like this in this country. First, the NIMBYs would rally, worried about traffic, and all "those people" with the coronavirus near them. There would be lawsuits over zoning issues. Angry hearings. Political backsliding, until the government gives up and takes over a local arena and converts that to a temporary hospital. And that's what we will do if this becomes a problem here.
I hope our government acts fast, hard and decisively if we need to manage this virus. Just like China but way better. The public needs to get a grip.
12
@K.Kong I do not long for a strong dictator to lead us.
Maybe China could have planned more hospital beds on the long run to care for their population on a normal day and absorb a crisis when it happens while working as a democracy and listening to people's concerns. I can't imagine that this construction is up to code either.
8
Shabby construction aside, how does China qualifies doctors, nurses and other hospital personnel necessary to run a 1,000+ hospital bed in 10 days?
15
@BWCA good question, they handed the hospital over to 1400 military doctors and nurses..it was in the news.
16
Yes, this is amazing. Having visited China and lived in Japan for many years, I have witnessed many construction and repair projects. Not only the speed of construction is remarkable, but the consideration for traffic flow and inconvenience for commuters is taken into consideration. If the commuter rails were ever late--a real rarity--you'd receive a personal apology from company staff and a late notice. The NYC subway, while decently reliable, is a filthy dinosaur compared to the urban subways of China and Japan. We can learn a lot from the speed and care which these countries invest in their infrastructure. May the Chinese government's commitment to stopping this terrible virus pay off as quickly as possible.
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@PTNYC Sounds like you are talking about Japan not China. I love walking by a construction site in Japan. They have signs with a construction worker in a hard hat bowing and apologizing for any inconvenience and asking for its citizens kind cooperation.
I rode the No. 13 Line in Shanghai a couple of years ago, not as clean as Tokyo but still much better than NYC or Chicago's subways. I have never seen any signs apologizing for this and that in Shanghai.
And in the U.S. it can take 20 or more years to replace a simple bridge and cost 20 times more than what it costs in other countries to build. We should just hire China to come over and replace all of our infrastructure. I figure they could get it all done in less than five years at a fraction of the cost. We should also outsource our healthcare and educational complexes to other countries to get better results at a fraction of the costs.
22
@SparkyTheWonderPup
I get the sentiment and share some of it myself. Still, not sure that the story of the emerging coronavirus is the one one which to build the argument for outsourcing our healthcare to China.
9
@SparkyTheWonderPup I hope you're joking, right? Infrastructure like bridges are built slowly because they are not a priority. This is not the normal rate at which China would build a hospital. They're building it this fast due to a global (once local) health crisis. China can build infrastructure faster than the USA because their standards are usually lower, less regulation, and a large work force that will work for barely livable wages with unsafe or non-ideal working conditions. Is the way the USA does thing ideal? No, but there's good reason why projects here take longer and cost more than in a nation like China.
25
@SparkyTheWonderPup Look up what happened when I Chinese firm imported laborers to the Bahamas to build a hotel. It went bankrupt and then needed to have portions rebuilt due to shoddy work.
2
Please excuse the emergency equivalence, but if CCP infrastructure leadership could build things with zero emissions, that’d be great.
3
I can't see how the concrete foundation could properly cure in such a short time... I'd imagine that foundation cracks will appear at some point in the future, which can cause the building to collapse. Maybe the prefab parts are light weight, but I'd bet that "regular" engineering/construction certs were not properly met.
13
@KiruDub What it is, is an enormous field hospital. I can't imagine it is meant to be a permanent fixture. It doesn't look like a real hospital.
17
@KiruDub
They add accelerants into the concrete mix, which will harden it in 24-48 hrs.
Regardless, this may only be a temporary installation.
7
@KiruDub Foundation? I did not see any sign of a foundation, this is slab on grade. At best a temporary structure.
4
This is an incredible achievement but is it merely an ostentatious display to the world? Local residents in China claim that when they show up at hospitals to report coronavirus symptoms, they are being turned away. Those that have passed away are being documented for death of other reasons other than coronavirus and their bodies are being burned.
7
@Gigi The hospital was built to accommodate patients that are already diagnosed with the virus. This will free up the hospitals that will do the diagnosis. Please read the article carefully.
3
Slap construction materials together in a few days and you have a structure. But, I doubt enough care was not taken as it relates to safety, functionality and long term resilience. Would not be surprised if it starts crumbling after a few short years, or that there are plumbing, electrical, communications or host of other system failures almost immediately. But knowing China's allergy to criticism we'll not hear about it for some time.
1
@KaneSugar This was not meant to be a permanent structure, just a field hospital. Please read the article. It clearly indicates it is a makeshift hospital.
3
@JoAnn D
Thank you, I must have missed that point.
1
I would love to see an in depth story on construction in the “Immersive” section.
2
A functioning hospital - no.
3
@Denise G
It is an emergency hospital for a disaster. It is still better than tents Red Cross would put up in an emergency.
One of my neighbors commented, "Good thing they don't have earthquakes in China." He was talking about the QUALITY of the construction, not the quantity. Applies to all things made in China...but.... that quality improves with time, doesn't it?
We here in Chile figure that Chinese will be the world economic power within 10 years. Already Mandarin Chinese is offered in all public schools...
44
Of course quality improves with time! Have you seen the finest Chinese porcelains in museums? And do you remember when Made in Japan, Made in South Korea, and Made in Taiwan was considered bad quality?
3
I wouldn’t put it all on Red.
They followed the American growth model too closely and hastily.
please... don't you remember the 2008 earthquake? I'm no engineer but I suspect this 2 story building made of self supporting units would do well in an earthquake, except that the negative pressure seals world likely be compromised but it would be hard to avoid that with any such structure. otherwise you may be correct.
They show us an incredible indefatigable spirit to come together. Can we do this in the USA? In 100 years?
4
@As American As You Can Get...It took me 2 months to get a permit for my bathroom to be renovated ...and tons of attitude.
7
It's easier to produce band aids than solve the root causes. Uncontrolled agrarian economy has been the source for all of China's pandemic outbreaks from pig flu, avian flu, etc.
18
I think you fail to understand the creation of the other world health crisis such as the mad cow disease, Spanish flu, the MERS virus and the bubonic plague when simple causes as such are put forward.
3
@Carey
Nature is always in balance. If mankind were to stop abusing, maiming, torturing, killing animals it might cut down on all these epidemics. Not possible? One of these days, there will be an epidemic so virulent and strange that man will have no protection against it. I'm sure of this. The Coronavirus might be our ticket.
Think about this accomplishment by the Chinese and then compare it to the years it takes to complete a similar project in the US. Authoritarian governments have drawbacks, but getting major projects done quickly is not one of them. Imagine what the rail lines on the Eastern seaboard would look like if the US government had the ability to push public benefit projects through in a similar fashion. Instead we are left with decrepit railways that run at a fraction of the speed that they could run at.
Maybe Trump's regulatory rollbacks aren't so bad. It may be a step in the right direction.
3
@Ben . . .I personally don't want to drive on a bridge with any "roll backs," nor drink the water anywhere near a place where strong regulations are not applied, or eat the salad. We have strong regulations now and still have out breaks of salmonella on romaine lettuce routinely. What would our life be like without regulations for our safety? Well, banana republic comes to mind, or working in a factory in Asia.
45
@Ben regulatory roll back arent the answer. The question is can we work together .. USA has different parties with different interests .. And antagonism is a feature. China has a lot more streamlined decision making because all the power is with one entity.
6
You are assuming this hospital actually functions as a hospital. That remains to be seen. We need proof. You may think rolling back regulations leads to innovation and accomplishments, but it’s easy to lose sight of the problems, damage, or harm that gave rise to those regulation.
18
On a terminally jammed highway near the European city where I live, there is a 7-year project plan to widen it and expand an existing tunnel with an extra lane... the work goes on at a seemingly glacial pace, you rarely see more than a few crews of workers over the entire 10-mile stretch.
While fuming in the endless traffic jams I often say that the Chinese would have done the entire job in 6 months, but seeing this amazing feat of project management and engineering, perhaps I was being pessimistic.
23
It will be only a matter of days, at most, before Trump begins to reference this feat at his rallies and other public occasions with admiration and as an exemplar while contrasting and complaining about the foot-dragging and obstruction in the construction of his wall - continuing to demonize the democrats.
Authoritarianism will be praised and idealized, while the rule of law, democratic processes, and the Constitution will continue to be disparaged and rejected by Trump and his enablers.
50
Great job!
6
I would love to see the project management plan for this hospital. The coordination is brilliant. Just look at what can be accomplished for the public good. Stunning.
Thank you for covering this fascinating aspect of the health crisis. Please continue with more details as they can be learned. We have a lot to learn.
207
@Lee
Yes. Perhaps you should ask to see the environmental impact study. The concern for the wetlands area adjacent the lake. The impact to the sewage system. The zoning concerns. The earthquake resistance study. Coordination with the construction union. The plumbers licenses. The electricians licenses. The insurance paperwork.
12
@SJG
If your army is fighting an invasive enemy, would you ask to see the environmental impact study of their tank maneuvers, zoning regulation that limit what weapons they can use in what area, earthquake resistance of their command tent, firearm certification of their soldiers? I don't think so. In an emergency, the primary objective is to defeat the enemy. And coronavirus is our enemy now.
4
Nothing short of extraordinary. No matter what your opinion is of the Chinese authorities, you can't help but be impressed. Permits? Who needs 'em! Union work regulations? Fiddlesticks! Adequate drying & curing time for poured concrete? Eh...
208
@TigerSoul61 .. If you have modular design that's been tested elsewhere .. And the soil/foundation are similar .. There is no need to inspect and verify every stage of construction.
Ive seen this in Korean and Chinese shipbuilding .. By offering standard designs ..they cut down the time it takes from laying down keel to launching the ship. They put European commercial ship building out of business , save for cruise ships that are heavily customized.
27
@TigerSoul61
Engineering News-Record has a somewhat more technical report.
https://www.enr.com/articles/48603-as-crews-race-to-build-wuhan-hospitals-other-china-projects-grind-to-a-halt
As Crews Race To Build Wuhan Hospitals, Other China Projects Grind to a Halt
ENR
January 31, 2020
Scott Blair
5
@Norman No surprise there. Just look at the picture of all the transit mix trucks lined up on the road with concrete that is not going to other jobs. By the way, those trucks have to keep running so that the concrete they are carrying doesn't cure and basically end up trashing both the truck and the load. Neither should any mention be made of the pollution from all those huge idling diesels.
2
Amazing.
17
I read an article like this and reinforces my fear that the Chinese will simply pile over the United States as a world power. I realize this isn't related to the current issue i.e. the outbreak of the Corona virus but the ability of the municipal authorities to build an operational 1000 bed hospital in ten days simply awe inspiring.
How long would it take to do this in the United States? Five years? I think so. The argument that socialism is dead or obsolete is probably mistaken. The command economy that the Chinese have built is similar to the command economy the U.S. and other countries had during the Second World War. Dealing with pandemics is one area where this mobilization seems essential.
84
@Yankelnevich
Five years in the U.S. to build a 1000 bed hospital? No way.
It would take five years just to do the environmental impact studies, regional transportation impact plans, etc., etc., just to get to begin holding endless public hearings. Then, years to get voter approval to get the revenue. Then, once construction starts and the massive cost overruns start rolling in, which will require more public involvement it will easily take 10 years to finish, but probably longer. By then, everybody will have died from the virus.
15
Do you really believe the USA couldn’t respond to a virus bette than China? Stop equating normal bylaws in US with emergency situations.
4
@Jack
How well did we respond to the Puerto Rican hurricane (and earthquake)?
12
how can the west ever compete against such power?
28
@Phil emphasize quality, or service?
9
@ Phil... We used to be like that. That's why we are fifty years or more ahead of most of China in standard of living. We're just not like that anymore.
4