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CDC coronavirus testing decision likely to haunt nation for months to come

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Re: CDC coronavirus testing decision likely to haunt nation for months to come

#31

When they tried testing in NYC they got sick people to stand in line with people who just think they might be sick, which causes the not sick people to be sick.

Yep, there's something that just screams "wake up and use your head" about that. It happened in Australia as well. Have people just lost their ability to think?

Re: CDC coronavirus testing decision likely to haunt nation for months to come

#32

I just don't see what good is going to come out of worrying about this right now while the world is on fire. Everybody needs to be thinking about how to help in the coming weeks, anything else is a waste of time and mental energy. There will be plenty of time to analyze what went wrong with the initial response when things calm down. This is just raising the level of angst unnecessarily in my opinion.

This comment is heavily biased towards a US-centric worldview. Different parts of the world are burning, or burning out, at different rates... so it’s not so much about “worrying about this right now” but “what lessons can one part of the globe learn from another that is a few days/weeks/months ahead”

Re: CDC coronavirus testing decision likely to haunt nation for months to come

#33
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An analogy I used over a “Zoom & Bourbon” meetup last night was that the COVID handling by the US federal government is very similar to aircraft crashes: it’s never just one failure, but a series that cascade (and you invariably “get behind the aircraft” due to being overwhelmed) and lead you to the crash site. We’re almost to the crash site, just a few more weeks to go. Please make every attempt to stay safe and hea…

Are you by any chance describing the Swiss cheese model? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model

Yes! It’s overused, but very useful when communicating the idea.

Re: CDC coronavirus testing decision likely to haunt nation for months to come

#34
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally no country has tested 1 million people, let alone millions.

> no country has tested 1 million people Well, the country prepared for epidemics just didn't have to test one million people, but still kept it under control: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/how-south-korea-flattened... They were indeed able to use their tests more efficiently than any other country, and to really do a lot of tests compared to any other country: https://www.cdc.go.kr/board/board.es?mid=a304020000…

Wouldn't it also help that South Korea is 1/7th the size of Texas so it's a little easier to test everyone? It also helped one company mass produced tests

Re: CDC coronavirus testing decision likely to haunt nation for months to come

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Meanwhile, the FDA did not allow anyone other than the CDC to test for coronavirus. true > there were multiple, compounding layers of fuck-ups. also true All of it is completely true. And the issue is that both of these were blatantly obvious to anyone paying attention to the situation. The CDC was struggling to develop the test, and the FDA regulates who can create tests under normal circumstances. The larger ques…

> FDA regulation only allowed the CDC to create a test wondering why this regulation exists and are there any guidelines for extreme situations.

Well, you get somebody out here going "Hey, we've got great tests for this, the best." and a bunch of people who are about to drink aquarium chemicals take the test, get a negative result because the test doesn't work, and now you've got a bunch of morons running around infecting everyone else.

The testing shortage is a grand fuck-up, to be sure. But it's not as bad as waiting to tell everyone to stop congregating and start washing their hands more.

Re: CDC coronavirus testing decision likely to haunt nation for months to come

#36

This whole line of analysis has confused me. The CDC tests, while flawed, were never very numerous, right? Is the contention that if these early tests had worked, they actually would have been sufficient to protect the entire nation? It's seemed to me the problem has more been that we haven't stockpiled supplies over the past few years like South Korea did.

South Korea started developing tests for the virus early in the year and had the capability of testing on a wide scale when the virus broke out there. This combined with aggressive tracking and management is what gave SK the edge in controlling the disease.

If the CDC had been at all organized they could have been in the same position as SK with respect to testing. If you can test and target the infected you don't need a stockpile of supplies.

Re: CDC coronavirus testing decision likely to haunt nation for months to come

#37
When China announced they had a mystery virus, travel from China should have been stopped.

When China locked down their country, travel from China should have been stopped.

When community spread was detected in Washington state, the U.S. should have been locked down.

Testing wasn't the problem.

Re: CDC coronavirus testing decision likely to haunt nation for months to come

#38
post #9
post #5

Does anyone know actual facts about testing in the US? Yes, the CDC's tests were flawed, but ... 1) Other countries don't have a problem testing millions of people, so why doesn't the US use the same tests they do? 2) 3.5 weeks ago the Trump admin promised 1 million tests that week with many more to follow soon thereafter. After all this time they still haven't materialized, so what happened to the million tests? 3)…

The context matters: https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/trumps-statements-about-th... "Feb. 26: “And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero , that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” — Trump at a press conference." "Feb. 27: “ It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.” — Trump at a White House meeting with African American…

FDA, CDC, etc., are a massive bureaucratic flywheel, and pay little attention to whoever is in the Whitehouse.

I'm not sure I'm a fan of Trump's messaging, but I'm under no illusion that it made any difference at all in this.

Re: CDC coronavirus testing decision likely to haunt nation for months to come

#39
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you by any chance describing the Swiss cheese model? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model

Yes! It’s overused, but very useful when communicating the idea.

I agree.

Re: CDC coronavirus testing decision likely to haunt nation for months to come

#40

When China announced they had a mystery virus, travel from China should have been stopped. When China locked down their country, travel from China should have been stopped. When community spread was detected in Washington state, the U.S. should have been locked down. Testing wasn't the problem.

All of those things are true, but that doesn't change the fact that testing is the problem.
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