Live data from Hacker News

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

khn.org

141–150 of 339 posts

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

#141
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.…

Don't forget the mask shaming that was perpetuated in the US.

I suspect it will be shown that disposable $0.50 N95 masks are largely effective and that the US population was deliberately misled about their effectiveness because the country has no way to provide such masks not only to the general public but to healthcare workers.

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

#142
post #76

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.

Why not when you have time to spare? I personally am trying to spread good information, and push back on misinformation as my part to help, but I feel I am seriously losing that battle at present. Part of fixing “world on fire” is fixing your mistakes. And honestly, just because the US is on fire (due to lack of effective planning and mitigation), doesn’t mean Japan or other first world countries are on fire.

I'm also trying my best to push back on misinformation, but not feeling like I'm having much positive effect. It feels like there's just a flood of it.

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

#143

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…

What’s your point? The WHO lost all credibility. As late as January 14, 2020 the WHO tweeted that there is NO evidence of human to human transmission of covid-19 https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1217043229427761152?s=20

There is huge difference between "no evidence of human to human transmission" and "evidence of no human to human transmission". The former means, we don't know yet. You can blame them for not knowing. But admitting that was right. And when they knew, they told everyone. At least in this instance, they haven't lost any credibility. On the contrary, it shows integrity to admit your limits of knowledge.

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

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget the mask shaming that was perpetuated in the US.

You’ll still get looks for wearing a mask. It’s ridiculous.

Often I am the only one wearing a mask in the whole grocery store. Munich, 1300 infections. One infected for couple city blocks.

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

#145

People are blaming trump and while I'm no fan, the cdc is an embarrassment. How many decades did they have to prepare for disease control?

Obama ramped up the CDC pandemic response team in 2014 after bird flu, and Trump let CDC leadership roles go unfilled in 2018 after they left. The Trump admin is directly responsible for the CDC becoming an 'embarrassment' as you say. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/28/michael-bl...

Or https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/dems-misconstrue-trump-bud...

/heh, folks downvoting factcheck.org these days....

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

#146
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?

Similar mistakes were made by seemingly every country that hadn’t dealt with a SARS virus before. This might be partially explained by the leadership position the US has traditionally enjoyed on the world stage.

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

#147
post #28

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.

If you want to come out of a lock-down without also causing the number of cases to spike again, we'll need to implement a widespread test-and-trace protocol similar to South Korea's. This requires _lots and lots_ of testing.

It's not entirely clear that some politicians aren't contemplating ending the lockdown and accepting the casualties.

It seems crazy when you run the numbers.

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

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget the mask shaming that was perpetuated in the US.

I suspect it will be shown that disposable $0.50 N95 masks are largely effective and that the US population was deliberately misled about their effectiveness because the country has no way to provide such masks not only to the general public but to healthcare workers.

Agree, but it's not so cut and dry. https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/23/face-masks-much-more-t...

edit: speaking of cut and dry..men should be clean-shaven to ensure snug fit.

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

#149

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.

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

#150
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article is by a U.S. institute about a problem that only affects the U.S. There's nothing for the rest of the world to learn...they already did it right by using the WHO test.

Several countries are in similar situations. For example Iceland‘s recent order for more tests got scaled back to 2,000 from 5,000. But unlike the US their acting like the situation is worse than it appears to be to try and limit spread. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_I...

Most of the EU countries only test the very sick or dead. Americans tend tu spend too much time on arguing each other, it's too late to get it under control like that anyway.
Post reply on HN