Live data from Hacker News

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

khn.org

171–180 of 339 posts

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

#171

Admittedly, America dropped the ball, tripped over it, and broke it's nose. However, lets not forget that the WHO was also wildly irreaponsible by not declaring this a pandemic sooner.

How have they been "wildly irresponsible"? Placing a label on the whole crisis is a rather symbolic act. Important was and is to spread the available knowledge, tests, and know-how.

But saying that there was no proof for human to human transmission [0] in mid January when china was already going ramping up containement efforts was negligent imo. They were the only international observers on the ground and it's hard for the rest of the world to prepare itself when they tell you that you basically don't have to.

They shouldn't have just relayed whatever early study came out that was most likely trying to play down what was happening there. And if you add up their mysterious 'typos' and their other efforts to please/appease the Chinese government, the WHO comes out of this with little credibility left

[0] https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1217043229427761152?s=20

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

#172
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we stop threatening criminal negligence charge for every single mistakes people make? It's not going to improve performance in the next pandemic if people are afraid of doing their job or engages in ass covering.

Uhm, yes, skin in the game? Things generally don't improve because people get better. Things generally improve because bad people/groups/corporations/ideas fail. Way more people should be fired / tried / impeached. Need I remind you that nobody went to jail over 2008? It does make the system more healthy. If you're responsible for the health of some country you better be scared , because the consequences are dire, an…

Things generally don't improve because people get better. Things generally improve because bad people/groups/corporations/ideas fail.

Things improve when we endeavor to make things better and test our ideas and willingness to learn from mistakes, especially so if we prioritize pandemic preparation.

Punishing people for their mistakes lead to people hiding their mistakes, not trying their damn hardest not to make a mistake, especially since mistakes are probably inevitable in a complex and evolving situation like a potential pandemic.

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

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't the Trump administration slash CDC funding? This claims so: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/trump-cuts-programs-respo... And here we have him saying "I'm a businessperson. I don't like having thousands of people around when you don't need them," Trump said. "When we need them, we can get them back very quickly." https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/trump-defend...

Not exactly. Again, 1 screen, but folks are seeing 2 different movies. https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/dems-misconstrue-trump-bud...

Your link — which you’ve posted twice — doesn’t address the points being made.

It’s a fact that the pandemic response team was cut, and it’s a fact that the White House budget proposal included cuts to the CDC.

1: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/

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

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this mentality when other Western Nations are going through the exact same thing. Did the administration cause every other countries problems with containing the virus too?

The US has been far behind other Western countries in testing: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/17/us/coronaviru... The per-capita chart is most notable. Other Western countries' responses haven't been stellar either, but the US's is particularly flawed.

For more up to date data see https://covidtracking.com/us-daily/

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

#175
post #121

The damage will be much longer lasting than this. The Chinese bought the US precious weeks to prepare while it locked down vast numbers of its own population. The disaster could have been prevented through a vigorous testing/quarrantine program in Washington and California. At every step of the way the US either bungled testing, or actively discouraged testing. It's been nothing but lies and mistakes from the start.…

I don't understand this mentality when other Western Nations are going through the exact same thing. Did the administration cause every other countries problems with containing the virus too?

The US was weeks behind Italy in the initial spread of the virus. If the Chinese example wasn't enough to learn, at least what was happening in Italy should have been.

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

#176
post #106

This article does not mention the WHO offered tests to the US before the CDC decided it should make its own[1]. This alone should have been enough to bring impeachment charges against public officials, for criminal neglect. If the WHO had proven these in China, and you have no other alternative, it make sense to do both 1. buy tests you know are in active use and 2. make your own tests if needed. Someone at the CDC m…

Can we stop threatening criminal negligence charge for every single mistakes people make? It's not going to improve performance in the next pandemic if people are afraid of doing their job or engages in ass covering.

[deleted]

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

#177
One of the issues is that the initial CDC test was overly complicated.

>On Wednesday, under pressure from health experts and public officials, the CDC and the FDA told labs they no longer had to worry about the portion of the test intended “for the universal detection of SARS-like coronaviruses.” After three weeks of struggle, they could now use the test purely to check for the presence of COVID-19.

https://www.propublica.org/article/cdc-coronavirus-covid-19-...

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

#178
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US government is only partially to blame here. Goldman Sachs apparently donated over 100k N95 masks to New York last week. As a personal critic, I did see some of this coming in my own finances and did divest. I should have done more to be outspoken about this risk, but I am daily surprised by how unprepared we were and how few people are speaking out in ways that matter. Kudos to Cuomo. EDIT: I do think the arti…

I’m curious... did GS already have those masks for some reason or did they purchase and then donate them? I thought the masks were is short supply so I’m surprised if a non-health care org was able to purchase 100k masks recently.

There was a story yesterday about Facebook having 720,000 masks stockpiled. They'd bought them in case west coast fires were an ongoing issue.

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

#179
post #121

The damage will be much longer lasting than this. The Chinese bought the US precious weeks to prepare while it locked down vast numbers of its own population. The disaster could have been prevented through a vigorous testing/quarrantine program in Washington and California. At every step of the way the US either bungled testing, or actively discouraged testing. It's been nothing but lies and mistakes from the start.…

I don't understand this mentality when other Western Nations are going through the exact same thing. Did the administration cause every other countries problems with containing the virus too?

Whatever happened to American exceptionalism?

>Did the administration cause every other countries problems with containing the virus too

The American people did not elect and pay other countries to take care of them, they did for their government. The administration dismantled the pandemic team from the highest levels and along with their media cronies, actively minimized it for several weeks[1][2] and made it political, which is costing lives now. The other countries did not do that to Americans.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifKbwDf51bA&feature=youtu.be...

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/opinion/trump-coronavirus...

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

#180

Getting the test was difficult enough here in California. A bigger problem that isn't being discussed is the delay to get the results. I had a test 10-days ago and still do not have results. Obviously, still self-isolating. The local health county department have taken over issuing the results. Yesterday, after multiple calls they told me to call the hospital as they don't have an answer. Was able to contact someone…

Heard a report of a test getting "lost".

https://thebatesstudent.com/2020/03/23/jack-allard-16-is-in-...

Post reply on HN