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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

#71

Post by catalogia »

rayiner wrote: post #34
chmod775 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

No matter which way you slice it, America has a very capable blue water navy while China's barely qualifies. They're on tier with India, Italy, and Russia; only capable of force-projection in their neighborhood. Besides the US, France and the UK are capable of global power projection; that's it. And both of those are in NATO too.

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

#72

Post by pnako »

drocer88 wrote: post #47
throwaway_pdp09 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.02.20080036v... "This study provides the first in vivo evidence that zinc sulfate in combination with hydroxychloroquine may play a role in therapeutic management for COVID-19." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030698772... "we hypothesize that CQ/HCQ plus zinc supplementation may be more effective in reducing COVID-19 morbidity and mortality than CQ o…

There are already good retrospective observational studies out, like [0]

[0] Outcomes of 3,737 COVID-19 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin and other regimens in Marseille, France: A retrospective analysis https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S147789392...

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

#73

Post by someguydave »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #52
chasing wrote: post #24

At the moment we're well beyond the CDC. We have a President and his various acolyte governors who have so utterly botched and politicized our COVID-19 response that many people won't take the most basic steps to protect themselves and those around them. It's maddening and leaves those of us who are trying to do the right thing feel totally unprotected and unsupported, especially in states like Texas and Florida. The…

Of course there'll be politics on an issue of great social importance. That's supposed to be the point of having a CDC, that they can offer respected, apolitical advice on what we need to do. When they fail catastrophically, we inevitably fall back to the normal strategy for resolving disputes about what our society should do, which is politics.

Looking at the HN comments apparently nobody wants to believe that civil servants can fail unless hindered by the political bosses, and that Presidents are personally responsible for what 2.8 million federal employees do all day.

I wonder if they blame the Queen in the U.K.?

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

#74

Post by raheemm »

b0sk wrote: post #38

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?

These cuts were made after passing a $1.5 trillion tax cut in 2017.

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

#75

Post by Amezarak »

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.

It’s a culture problem throughout fedgov, not so much a funding problem. The DoD is also a huge mess, despite having plenty (most people would argue too much) funding. Take a look at something like the Afghanistan papers. Decision-making at every level and internal politics impacting competency are massive problems. Changing Presidents can’t fix this, because it’s a slow-motion problem going on for decades, and Presidents actually have very little power over what actually goes on in these agencies internally - that’s what the contemporary complaints about the so-called “deep state” are about: most agencies are in practice virtually independent from the White House, and will simply sandbag or defy any direction from the White House or appointees they aren’t interested in following. These people are experts in exploiting bureaucracy to achieve their aims, which are dominated by personal politics and career advancement.

I used to say exactly what you’re saying, but now having seen how it all works firsthand, I am afraid the problem is intractable without major Congressional overhaul of the entire executive branch, including mass layoffs to get out the problems, before we increase funding to any agency. And I don’t think Congress is ever going to do this.

Additionally, at least according to Forbes, the CDC employs more people now than ever, having increased headcount by 25% since 2007, when it was already at an all-time high. (The article also complains about comp, but I personally don’t think it’s too high.)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2020/02/29/106...

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

#77

Post by paulcole »

mschuetz wrote: post #58
watwut wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I literally can't read most articles due do adblock blocker or because they block european visitors.

Turn your adblocker off if you want to read those articles? If you don’t, don’t.

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

#78

Post by mschuetz »

paulcole wrote: post #77
mschuetz wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I literally can't read most articles due do adblock blocker or because they block european visitors.

Turn your adblocker off if you want to read those articles? If you don’t, don’t.

adblockers are a non-negotiable necessity nowadays. not due to ads, but due to tracking.

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

#79

Post by emmelaich »

ausbah wrote: post #44
b0sk wrote: post #38

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?

Trump, Trump did. Edit: Trump's administration did request funding to the "pandemic response team", set up by the Obama administration, be cut. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/

Obama cut it too. Until Ebola.

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

#80

Post by x86_64Ubuntu »

icegreentea2 wrote: post #22
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…

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…

The fact that "military" is a "divisive" issue proves the point of how we got to this point in the first place.
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