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The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

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Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#31

Post by chmod775 »

ransom1538 wrote: post #25
icegreentea2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you'd make a stronger argument by instead of making a military or other things argument, and just make a 'fund other things more' argument. The reason I think you should stay away from pointing fingers, especially at a relatively divisive issue like military or especially aircraft carrier funding is because then you shift a question of "should American be world leading in commercial air travel regulation, pan…

I love this "half of annual discretionary spending". It is designed to confuse the fact that military spending is only %15. [1] https://www.kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/the-facts-on-medica...

I don't think spending more on military than the next 10 countries combined can be described as "only" in any way.

The highest spender are the US, with $732.0 billion, followed by China with $261.0 billion, then India and Russia with $71.1 and $65.1 billion respectively.

Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#32

Post by victorbstan »

ibarea277 wrote: post #13
vikramkr wrote: post #5

Over the past few years a series of American agencies have lost their reputation and world standing. The FAA with the 737 max, the CDC with the test, the FDA with testing regulation and hydroxychloroquine. Its important to have institutions that work, but we've spent years deliberately gutting them and undervaluing them. All that money spent on the military and homeland security, and in the end we were caught utterly…

The data we have on hydroxychloroquine is now convincingly negative-there's just a ton of misinformation and it's become a political issue. But when some institutions fail you get widespread mistrust of both institutions and experts, which maybe is part of the compounding problem.

And who pushed for this drug? I don’t believe the CDC even cared to consider it that much. But the current administration and Trump were pushing way too hard on this. So they felt compelled to investigate. Look at all the damage Trump has corn to all of the organizations in the USA. He’s trying to take away any independent power and concentrate it into his office.

Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#33

Post by _jal »

aalexxjjamess wrote: post #29

Who trusted the CDC in the first place? The US healthcare system has been compromised by rampant profiteering for a long time.

This is a bit like blaming fire fighters for your disagreements with your fire insurance issuer.

They may indeed both suck, but blaming one for the failure of the other doesn't make much sense.

Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#34

Post by rayiner »

chmod775 wrote: post #31
ransom1538 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love this "half of annual discretionary spending". It is designed to confuse the fact that military spending is only %15. [1] https://www.kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/the-facts-on-medica...

I don't think spending more on military than the next 10 countries combined can be described as "only" in any way. The highest spender are the US, with $732.0 billion, followed by China with $261.0 billion, then India and Russia with $71.1 and $65.1 billion respectively.

Militaries are reliant on domestic production and labor. (Paying Chinese solider costs the government a fraction as much as an American soldier.) So instead of an exchange rate conversion, you should be doing a purchasing-power conversion. For these three countries, that means multiplying by 2x to 4x.

Also, the US is particularly inefficient at capital spending. It costs us a billion dollars to build a mile of subway, and costs countries like France a fraction of that. So that weighs further in favor of discounting our spending in that comparison.

Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#35

Post by throwaway_pdp09 »

jamesrom wrote: post #10
vikramkr wrote: post #5

Over the past few years a series of American agencies have lost their reputation and world standing. The FAA with the 737 max, the CDC with the test, the FDA with testing regulation and hydroxychloroquine. Its important to have institutions that work, but we've spent years deliberately gutting them and undervaluing them. All that money spent on the military and homeland security, and in the end we were caught utterly…

Without distracting from you central point (which I very much agree with), please read the science around hydroxychloroquine, not the news. It works best taken with Zinc, and early when symptoms first present.

Provide links to that 'science' if you're going to claim it exists, including any corroborating studies.

Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#36

Post by jamesrom »

ibarea277 wrote: post #15
jamesrom wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without distracting from you central point (which I very much agree with), please read the science around hydroxychloroquine, not the news. It works best taken with Zinc, and early when symptoms first present.

No. This has been disproven by the only good studies we have. Even with zinc and early, it has not been shown to have any effect.

There are zero studies that disprove zinc + early has a strong effect. You are wrong. Also, the lancet study was retracted for flawed methodology, other studies show slight benefit of hydroxychloroquine. There are zero studies that show it has no effect.

Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#38

Post by b0sk »

This is classic starve the beast. There is one party that continuously tries to gut government institutions - like putting Betsy Devos to head education, Wheeler to head EPA etc etc and then has the gall to say that government institutions don’t work

Who gutted the pandemic response unit?

Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#39

Post by ed-209 »

"Believing people without symptoms didn't spread the virus, the agency limited testing, discouraged masking..."

This is false by Fauci's own account (see below interview) in which he states mask wearing was discouraged in order to secure availability for health workers. This is no small distinction as it raises questions about the importance of public trust/credibility during a health crisis.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0XHC5Kxxv_w

Re: The CDC lost control of the coronavirus pandemic, then the agency disappeared

#40

Post by watwut »

gipp wrote: post #21
manicdee wrote: post #3

Clearly it was the CDC at fault here, not a few hand picked bureaucrats, not the chain of command, not a president with a penchant for firing people who challenge his authority. What a poorly concocted article. The least the author could do so remind people of the “starve the beast” approach to public utilities that the Republicans have been pursuing for decades. Nope, we’ll just throw the entire CDC under a bus.

There's this strange phenomenon on HN sometimes -- or at least I've noticed it here several times -- where people will somehow manage to condemn the article while arguing for exactly the thesis of the article . That's what you're doing here.

Given that a lot of people dont read articles and go straight to comments, comments that challenge title are valuable if the title is at odds with article content.
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