Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 309 posts

Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic

#241

Post by jmeister »

quietthrow wrote: post #74

This whole corona virus episode has definitely shown one thing. US, under the current govt can’t execute. Despite claims Like “world best”, “most powerful in the world” and whatever else our leaders proclaim it’s all baseless “marketing”. as they say past performance is not a indicator of future performance in the same way we did quite well from 40s/50s onwards for a certain time and build an image based on substance…

The private industry, academia(atleast for STEM) are still worlds best, by a mile

Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic

#242

Post by pacala »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #32

I hope one thing that comes of this outbreak is that all nations develop the processes and capabilities to quickly stop the spread of outbreaks in general. COVID19 is worse than flu, but not as bad as it could have been. We could get hit with something worse in the future. Imagine a strain of Ebola that gestates asymptomatically longer, or another coronavirus with higher mortality rate. This outbreak is good preparat…

> test extensively

You can't manage what you can't measure.

To this date, I have seen no reliable data on how fast the disease spreads, or how dangerous it actually is. Testing only 'people with shortness of breath and high fever for more than 4 days' is so biased it's not even funny. There could be 10x or even 100x more people with milder symptoms that are never considered for testing. Reporting '10% of people tested die' is also very misleading, since we only tested people with severe symptoms in the first place.

We can poll 5 times a week for the chances of Biden or Sanders or Warren to become Trump's challenger in fall. Perhaps we could also perform randomized tests every week and get a better sense of the shape of the danger we're facing. Yes, testing for coronavirus is more expensive than calling a phone number, but shutting down the country indefinitely is orders of magnitude more expensive.

Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic

#243

Post by hackermailman »

susanhi wrote: post #126
erentz wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole blaming people for hoarding masks and then the "masks don't work" things have been incredibly frustrating. It is almost like authorities didn't want anyone to start asking why the public couldn't get masks, as they can in say Taiwan. Most (if not all) distributors and manufacturers of masks has been prioritizing health care systems and governments over retailers since January. Just as they should do. Were t…

The government should have contracted mask manufacturers 2 months ago to ramp their mask production, both for medical staff and for the public. They still haven’t done this to date. Beyond frustrating.

No government did this, even when months ago China was shutting down it's factories and locking down a hundred million people zero preparation was done by all of our politicians. My country ran out of masks two weeks ago and people are just wearing makeshift masks

Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic

#244

Post by catalogia »

asiachick wrote: post #167

I'm still trying to understand why Japan's numbers are so low. You can argue they aren't testing but if the infection rate is similar then the death rate should be similar was well regardless of testing or not. They aren't staying home. Restaurants, bars, and events are still open. Trains are still packed at rush hour. Festivals are still happening. They're planning on starting school in April. I can only see a few p…

> "I don't believe this one. Japanese might wear masks but not all of them wear masks and they are not N95 masks."

Substandard masks are better than no masks, and many people wearing masks is better than few people wearing masks. These are not "all or nothing" matters.

Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic

#245

Post by Thriptic »

ardy42 wrote: post #158
Thriptic wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very irritating because people don't understand the concept of defense in depth. Are surgical masks going to give you total protection? Of course not, but as you say they provide SOME benefit. Saying "masks don't work because they don't fully stop the virus and users misuse them" is basically equivalent to saying "code review is a waste of time because it won't catch every bug and because devs don't do it correc…

> Are surgical masks going to give you total protection? Of course not, but as you say they provide SOME benefit. Saying "masks don't work because they don't fully stop the virus and users misuse them" Surgical masks aren't about protecting the wearer from everyone else, they're about protecting everyone else from the wearer [1]. They may provide the wearer some protection, but that's not really the point. The emphas…

I know what their stated purpose is, but it is true that wearing a mask protects the wearer as well to a degree. Stating that it doesn't (as many in the media / CDC / politicians have said) is factually incorrect. If they want to say that masks need to be preserved for healthcare workers or sick people, then they should say so and I would agree, but when they start bullshitting to try to trick people into the behavior that they want then it completely undermines their credibility. People then start asking things like "is it actually true that we need to socially distance or is that a lie as well?" The number one thing you should not do during times of crisis is start lying.

For example, I don't trust the WHO much anymore because they lied and said that closing China's borders would not stop the spread of corona behind pressure from the Chinese government.

Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic

#246

Post by j8hn »

bialpio wrote: post #234
Consultant32452 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes an N95 mask provides more protection than a surgical mask. That's completely different from whether either mask protects the wearer. Both masks absolutely protect the wearer from infection. I'm sure you understand that, but the way you are wording things makes this unclear.

If you have a mask shortage and there is one mask left in the country, is it better for the society for the sick person to wear it or for healthy person to wear it?

How about making enough masks so healthy and sick can wear similar to countries like Taiwan.

Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic

#248

Post by dang »

mrdrozdov wrote: post #162

The actual title is: How the CDC’s Restrictive Testing Guidelines Hid the Coronavirus Epidemic This is very different from guidelines in general. Encouraging people to avoid large crowds, wash their hands and wipe surfaces, and possibly self-quarantine could have made a huge impact earlier on. Instead, people kept going to bars, concerts, and traveling. A lot could have been done, and testing is only part of the stor…

Yes, we've reverted the title now. Submitters: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

(Submitted title was "CDC Guidelines Hid the Coronavirus Epidemic")

Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic

#249

Post by dang »

davelacy wrote: post #31

CDC has there shortcomings, no doubt but let’s not forget who’s truly to blame for the mess we’re in now. The trump administration’s disbandment of federal institutions created to combat this and the ongoing denial of a serious problem have led to a collapsing economy and isolation of millions. Good article here for sure but let’s not pass the blame to the CDC. We know who to blame...

Please do not take HN threads into partisan flamewar.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: How the CDC’s restrictive testing guidelines hid the coronavirus epidemic

#250

Post by MiroF »

takeda wrote: post #177
MiroF wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I personally hate being told something that is patently false, but I totally understand that, collectively, we need to be lied to for our own protection, because collectively we become a bunch of idiots. Yep, I understand this. I've also noticed recent emphasis on the danger of the virus to young people (like this somewhat misleading NYT article [1], although I just noticed that they recently updated it), I suspect…

Today a person aged 27 died in Poland from coronavirus.

Yes, there are also over 300k confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide. I'm not suggesting that the young should not worry (indeed, it's something like 10x deadlier than the flu), but suggestions that young people are disproportionately in danger (as the original NYT article did) are actively misleading.
Post reply on HN