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The secret U.S. stockpile meant to save us all in a bioterror attack

washingtonpost.com

21–30 of 45 posts

Re: The secret U.S. stockpile meant to save us all in a bioterror attack

#21
post #3

There were stockpiles of supplies in Puerto Rico, too, but that didn't mean it was successfully distributed to the people who needed it.[1] Is there a secret plan for disbursing this stockpile to 300+ million Americans? If so, why wasn't that plan utilized in PR? [1] https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/puerto-rico-fires-em...

I mean america is a Federation not a centralized country. There are rarely federal plans that are not somewhat affected by the state or territory that plan is for. PRs failure is completely on them and doesnt really reflect on the federal government, which, if you recall, explicitly pointed out the corruption but was unable to do anything about it due to political grandstanding

Re: The secret U.S. stockpile meant to save us all in a bioterror attack

#23
There are lots of government emergency stockpiles around the country. Some secret. Some not.

If you go to Grand Canyon Caverns, just east of the Hualapai reservation, and take the tour, you can see the old stockpile from the 1940's. According to the tour guide, in the last five or ten years, the government has started adding to it again.

Re: The secret U.S. stockpile meant to save us all in a bioterror attack

#24

This story is really interesting to me. Clearly, it’s to give people a sense of security and calmness given a potential virus outbreak. But also feels like government PR to other governments, with a message of “If you’re trying something, watch yourself.” Not trying to insinuate propaganda or elevate conspiracy. But anyone with a security background or who worked in disaster preparedness have any insight as to why an…

> Dr. Strangelove: Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost, if you keep it a secret! Why didn't you tell the world, eh?

> Ambassador de Sadesky: It was to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday. As you know, the Premier loves surprises.

---------------------------

An adversary can only be deterred by what they know.

Publicizing stockpiled healthcare supplies informs adversaries that a chemical or biological attack would be less successful, reducing such an attack's likelihood.

Re: The secret U.S. stockpile meant to save us all in a bioterror attack

#25
post #2

Why do we still have paywalled articles on the first page?

I don't want to limit the news and what we discuss here to news outlets funded by advertisements and charity. I also want professional outlets that produce content that at least some people consider worth paying for.

Re: The secret U.S. stockpile meant to save us all in a bioterror attack

#26
post #3

There were stockpiles of supplies in Puerto Rico, too, but that didn't mean it was successfully distributed to the people who needed it.[1] Is there a secret plan for disbursing this stockpile to 300+ million Americans? If so, why wasn't that plan utilized in PR? [1] https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/puerto-rico-fires-em...

[flagged]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

The result was only minor civil unrest.

Re: The secret U.S. stockpile meant to save us all in a bioterror attack

#28
post #27

Color me shocked that an article that's supposed to be about some topic manages to find a way to convert itself into another "Trump Bad" story halfway through. Is WaPo actually capable of writing an article that doesn't have a "Trump Bad" angle?

The article had specific criticisms about the actions of a new administration. Do you have any specific issues with those criticisms or do you think administrations should be immune from criticism? Every new admin has it's own priorities.

Re: The secret U.S. stockpile meant to save us all in a bioterror attack

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina The result was only minor civil unrest.

Right, because New Orleans is known as being an area to exercise their 2nd Amendment right!

Re: The secret U.S. stockpile meant to save us all in a bioterror attack

#30
post #27

Color me shocked that an article that's supposed to be about some topic manages to find a way to convert itself into another "Trump Bad" story halfway through. Is WaPo actually capable of writing an article that doesn't have a "Trump Bad" angle?

The article had specific criticisms about the actions of a new administration. Do you have any specific issues with those criticisms or do you think administrations should be immune from criticism? Every new admin has it's own priorities.

The entire analysis starts from the assumption that any administration goal is inherently either a fabrication or misguided.

"efficiencies" is clearly just code word for destroying all things good, obviously, and totally not worth even considering whether there is any meaning to the idea. I mean, if Trump wants it, it must be bad amirite?

Occasionally, they quote folks, like Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University in support of Trump. But every time, they carefully treat the quote and the person as obviously either stupid or corrupted, surrounding the quote with statements like "But critics say it will allow biotech companies to lobby for more of their specialized, and often more expensive, drugs to be included[...]"

Direct quote from an expert, treated as obviously worthless, followed by a weasel-words "some critics" which is treated as the clearly superior refutation of the idea from the actual knowledgeable person.

It's almost like they started with a narrative of "Trump is trying to kill us all by destroying our disease preparedness" and then sat down to write an article that looked like journalism but actually just told that story.

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