The question is whether the failures in testing were a product of incompetence or complicity between the sycophantic political appointee director of CDC and the White House in order to maintain Trump's deceptive narrative that Corvid 19 was not a problem for the US and Trump was on top of it. The more you test, the more the truth comes out and the White House does not want that.
See the article by world health authority, Laurie Garrett in Foreign Affairs, March 12, 2018. Distinguish between brilliant civil servants like Tony Fauci and appointees who are sops to political constituencies.
9
Interesting how China managed to develop a test kit for an unknown virus within two weeks of sequencing its genes, and produced sufficient number of kits to test millions of people, while battling a raging epidemic. The CDC had the genetic sequence at the same time, and had more than a month to produce a kit, or to adopt a readily available one in order to prepare for a local epidemic. Yet, as people started dying, they could only test 400 samples a day in a country of more than 300 million people. This is a country that spends more money on its military than all the other countries in the world combined. A country that sent a man to the moon 50 years ago, and has produced more Nobel prize laureates in medicine than any other country. Has the nation's public healthcare system been systematically hollowed out by the current administration ? Or a more sinister theory of a coordinated effort by the current administration to suppress information about the true situation of the epidemic, whilst loudly criticising the Chinese government of doing the same ?
157
The scale of what may be about to happen is difficult for us to comprehend. Suppose that 30% of Americans are infected and that morbidity is 3%, the number being floated today. The US population is 300M. If 100M people are infected, there will be 3,000,000 deaths.
That is slightly more than the number of deaths in a year in the US, from all causes.
I can't imagine any way that 100 million people can receive medical care.
We know there were ways to control the spread of the disease. Our government, led by the dude who claims to wield unlimited executive authority over every agency, blew it. This is a vastly consequential failure.
7
@Steve
I think the morbidity is less than 3%. We simply do not have a true total of positives that will bring that down.
1
November can’t come soon enough.
5
Have there been changes in the leadership of the CDC since Trump took office?
1
Only a handful of Americans have been tested for Coronavirus. Until large scale testing it's all just a story line.
4
Maccura Biotechnology Co in China has developed highly efficient and quick testing kit. And they are manufacturing them right now in big quantities. This kit can complete 96 tests in 2 hours. The Chinese government has been using it and they also donated a big batch to South Korea. Please talk to China.
8
China has developed a quick and highly accurate testing kid and are manufacturing it right now. Just need to ask for them from China. It can complete 96 tests in 2 hours. Here is the news report about it (google translate):
"The approved kit is highly accurate. It uses triple target gene detection (ORF1ab / E / N) and a single internal standard test to ensure the accuracy of the test and to avoid missed detection of the new crown virus. This test kit 96 tests can be completed in 2 hours, greatly reducing the screening time. "
4
People aren't going to self-impose quarantine over a cough unless they have some solid proof. I know at least 4 other people with coughs and shortness of breath in the Seattle Area. None are taking extreme measures because it's "probably just a cold".
What percentage is COVID-19? Who knows. If only there was a test...
7
Is there a corporation or individual waiting to profit monetarily by the "design" and manufacturing of the tests perhaps? Simply a horrid thought. But considering how money driven everything seems to have become. . .
8
If patients can't be tested, then cases can't be reported. Proof positive that the Trump administration has licked the virus!
11
Here are a couple of great pages of information from Trump's own Health and Human Services Department outlining the cuts he's made to the CDC:
https://www.hhs.gov/about/budget/fy2018/budget-in-brief/cdc/index.html
And from HHS's summary of CDC's 2019 budget:
"CDC’s FY 2019 request of $155,000,000 for CDC-wide Activities and Program Support is $102,262,763 below the FY 2018 Annualized CR level. The FY 2019 request carries forward the proposed reductions from the FY 2018 President’s Budget Request as well as continues the elimination of the Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant, as proposed in the FY 2018 President’s Budget Request."
Stop watching FOX "News" and find some real data sources.
10
The enforced unavailability of test kits dictated by the CDC was nothing less than suppression of evidence. Its from an old playbook, “…if we make sure there is no evidence, we’ll convince ‘em there isn’t a problem.” Too late. Yet, bad policy continues.
Can the CDC come up with an "what's the extent of the pandemic now" data collection plan and then implement it?
Thank you, state public health departments for filling a terrible void you should not have had to fill.
I am so glad to see test kits now being used in an intelligent way, to develop leads about the extent of community spread.
I cannot believe, when it was needed most, much of what was learned in the past three centuries about approaching a public health crisis was ignored or suppressed by those directing the CDC. For what? For who?
Stalin promoted the agronomist Lysenko for his politically convenient theories against natural selection and for Lamarkism. Too bad they were dead wrong. Lysenkoism dominated Soviet agricultural "research" for three decades. Thousands of biologists who spoke up were executed, imprisoned or fired. His state-supported psuedoscience made Russia’s famines worse.
Jacob Bronowski wrote "No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power. ... The time has come to consider how we might bring about a separation, as complete as possible, between Science and Government in all countries."
9
@will
Brilliant comment, Will. Stunningly disturbing, and something must CHANGE permanently on a global level.
2
Great 2018 interview on PBS News Hour titled "How will CDC cuts affect health programs abroad and at home?"
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-will-cdc-cuts-affect-health-programs-abroad-and-at-home
Now we know.
6
Here are Trump's proposed CDC cuts for FY 2020:
https://www.cdc.gov/budget/documents/fy2020/fy-2020-detail-table.pdf
3
Obviously, accepting working test kits from other countries would demonstrate that America is not really that GREAT again...
11
I think that this situation is relatively clear. First, Trump fires all of the key governmental officials who would deal with handling something like this. Thus, no one experienced is leading/planning/organizing the response (OK, VP Pence, but really?) Second, Trump doesn’t want a coronavirus problem in the US right now, so virtually no testing=few diagnoses=US coronavirus free!
I’ve been hearing so many stories of people with symptoms being told that they would not be tested and to go home. The true state of the coronavirus in the US is, essentially, unknown. But until testing becomes widespread and self-quarantine starts, it will continue to work its way through the population. So, eventually we will find out how badly we have been misled.
10
Once the dust settles, Congress must begin investigations into the CDC's actions. Why was the initial batch of test kits flawed? Why wasn't the test used by the W.H.O. utilized? Why was the testing criteria kept so narrow for so long? Was this done simply to cover for the CDC's limited testing capacity? The country needs and deserves answers. The CDC has always been held in very high esteem by most Americans. If they failed us on this coronavirus, we must find out why and what changes have to be made at the agency. We must also find out to what extent political considerations and budget cutting by the current administration played a role.
242
@Julie W.
Investigate trump. He's the one who is making cuts to important departments and health care. He deserves the blame!
25
@Majortrout
Sorry, to late for that my friend. He's already passed the blame to his "faithful" V.P...
20
@Ma
Why are you screaming false GOP talking points?
14
A colleague works as medical director of a lab at a major medical institution in the northeast and they developed and validated their own test a month ago - which was easy to do once China released the viral DNA information - but the FDA blocked them from using it, even in-house. There is gonna be a LOT more Covid-19 out there when the testing finally does get going.
208
@Donna
Is this something that should be exposed “whistleblower “ style? Sounds like it to me.
42
@Donna And once all that testing gets going, it will presumably find numerous large outbreaks as a result of community transmission that occurred because no tests were available to identify the infected, so that moves could be taken to prevent transmission. Perhaps, by some miracle, that won't turn out to be true. But it sure seems likely, and it should be a major scandal. This is just a totally inexcusable failure, and it will be deadly.
43
@Donna Doesn’t matter, costs of testing using privately-developed kits are charged to the patient—$3000 or more for each test. As most people in this country most cannot even afford a $400 emergency expense, how many will avoid testing due to the crippling cost.
23
The lack of tests and testing for COVID 19 goes way beyond simple incompetence, this is gross negligence!
This administration had the time to blame this pandemic on a Democratic Hoax, bigotry, conspiracy theories,make further cuts to the CDC budget and erroneously claimed that a vaccine was almost ready. Despite knowing about COVID19 since January ,they still have not managed to provide a working test kit!
Until thorough testing is completed throughout the US, there is no way of gauging the severity or progress of the coronavirus! There are drive thru testing facilities in other countries , with a three day wait time for the results!
This goes beyond gross negligence. It is criminal malfeasance perpetrated by an inept, nearsighted administration on a trusting electorate!
13
As the gross incompetence of Trump's administration continues to be revealed in everything he does and all they stumble through, real crises amplify and exacerbate the effects of the corona of incompetence surrounding him and the self-serving rottenness at the core... Trump.
Of course, the Jonestown-like MAGA faithful will walk off the cliff singing his praises, but the rest of us need to understand how deeply exposed we are to the drift, grift and incompetence of Trump. You can't blow this off, now...
The COVID-19 scourge is upon us, Republicans. As the COVID - 19 research doctor says:
“If you can smell what someone had for lunch — garlic, curry, etc. — you are inhaling what they are breathing out, including any virus in their breath,” he said.
This is serious stuff, but our Republican government is not.
7
@live now, you'll be a long time dead
Excellent post... That last part could not be any more clear.
1
MAGA!!
All the way back to the 50's!!
2
Our CDC was always our gem. We had faith in it,
we could trust it. Through several pandemics.
Now..
We made America Great Again, and fixed it.
8
The botched/lack of testing in the US is on purpose. Trump doesn't want everyone to know how widespread the pandemic is becoming, plain and simple, because it'll affect his reelection chances. Meanwhile, more people will die as a result of this purposeful neglect. But, Trump doesn't care; he only cares about himself, his bank balance, and staying out of jail for as long as possible.
16
If the US had embraced the test used by the W.H.O, it would have been clear evidence that Trump is not keeping America great. I guess, when America was Great, there was no CDC.
4
Hello- they dont WANT to test people. It would have shown this was out in the community 4-6 weeks ago, and now it would easily show 100,000 positives. Its all spin and pump the stock market so political donors can dump their shares.....same with Powells dropping rates by 1/3 per cent today.
4
Trump and his supporters take all the credit for things that turn out well. thus, i assume it is fair to conclude that Trump and his people are to blame for not being able to test for this disease whereas most other countries are able to do so.
for all we know millions of people in the USA might be walking around with this disease and we don't even know it.
4
We need experienced people who have a tremendous amount of knowledge to lead in their field of expertise. Who should have made the decision to go with the German test yet did not?This is a sneak peek into what will happen when terrorist activity increases in the U.S. because Trump keeps putting loyalty above capability.
4
Under the Trump Administration there has been a full scale hollowing out of many govt. agencies. Funding, deregulation, and most importantly a loss of personnel who carry the institutional knowledge of policy, procedure and processing systems. When a system loses its balancing mechanisms and “brain power” you get systems failure. Managing the Coronavirus requires a known communications network between multiple agencies, many of the people responsible for integrity of the communication have been retired, fired, defunded, deregulated, moved out of the system causing breakdown. DT and his need for gratification of control and power over everything in his kingdom is the barrier to success of his MAGA. He is destroying our democracy and the Coronavirus is an vivid example of his arrogant ignorance of both the use of and responsibility of Presidential Power within our system of Democracy.
7
Budget cuts to federal agencies and programs focused on disease prevention and security were ordered by the Trump administration to help defray the massive budget deficit created by the "big beautiful tax cut."
"Overall in 2018, Trump called for $15 billion in reduced health spending that had previously been approved, as he looked at increasing budget deficits, cutting the global disease-fighting budgets of the CDC, National Security Council (NSC), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Health and Human Services (HHS) in the process."
https://fortune.com/2020/02/26/coronavirus-covid-19-cdc-budget-cuts-us-trump/
Same old story: the rich get richer by sucking the resources of life out of everyone else.
3
The same Republican "leaders" botching the reporting and testing for coronavirus are simultaneously petitioning the Supreme Court to kill the ACA. Heartless. Vote Democratic in November like your country _and_ your healthcare depend on it. They both do.
8
These guys here developed the first test and if I get it right they gave the testing protocol away as public domaine (for free) to spread it as quickly as possible : https://www.dzif.de/en/researchers-develop-first-diagnostic-test-novel-coronavirus-china
By the way financed by our taxes and not by big business or investment companies.
1
So - Rod Rosenstein's sister, Dr. Nancy Messonniere of the CDC, warns everyone that the coronavirus could be really bad to get out in front of the fact that the CDC failed to get the testing kits out timely. Now the whole mess may conveniently be placed on the President. Neat. https://nypost.com/2020/02/25/cdc-urges-americans-to-prepare-for-coronavirus-outbreak-this-might-be-bad/
1
@JBG
What does the fact that Rod Rosenstien is Dr. Messonniere's brother have to do with anything?
On February 4th, The NYT published an article about the Chinese government's response to the Coronavirus entitled "Coronavirus Crisis Shows China’s Governance Failure". Now that the US government is lying about having 1 million tests, why don't we see healines like "US Officials lie about number of tests"? Why can't the NYT hold the US government to the same standard as they do other governments?
3
It drives me nuts every time I see phrases like "mysterious case" or "unexplained origin." Cases are neither mysterious nor unexplained; they are spread from one person to another, and it can happen just as easily in the U.S., Canada, Europe, etc. as in China, especially when the government refuses to test basically anybody for two straight months.
It's beyond obvious that people have caught the virus outside of China, Italy, Iran, etc. It's time to test anyone with a fever or cough who seeks medical attention. It's time to know the truth about how many Americans are actually sick.
It's easy to crow about how well we've contained the virus, as Trump did at his news conference last weekend, when you don't test people. You can't report cases that haven't been tested. But common sense says this virus has already spread; it's everywhere.
48
The CDC case calls attention to a case now being argued in the Supreme Court, where corporate and administration opponents of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau seek to overturn past decisions and put independent regulatory agencies under greater presidential/political control. I hope the defenders of agency independence will cite what has just happened in the CDC, whose director's appointment had raised questions about past conflicts of interest, and who was clearly not acting in the public interest when he prevented the creation of more corona testing kits--thus endangering thousands of Americans.
4
If very little is tested, even less is recognized as positive. If then contact to positively recognized is one of the prerequisites for a test then it slowly becomes very peculiar (almost criminal). An austerity programme that leads to a huge spread.
For weeks it is known to be able to distribute viruses even without own complaints.
More can't be done wrong.
1
This situation saddens me. This is not the CDC I relied on for information and respected so much during my career as a public health nurse. I would love to see some detailed reporting on what people, postitions and programs the CDC has lost or cut since January 20, 2017.
23
Make America Test Again
15
The daily WHO situation reports already reported yesterday that the virus is spreading locally in the US. Both the Washington cases and the New York case without travel or known infection chain show it.
6
Absent free press we'd never hear this important journalism. Trump and his ilk would have gagged this report for certain.
With more of this maybe we can save ourselves.
These mistakes by CDC including all the casual lies by Trump are harmful but the impact would be minimized if Americans had spent 5 trillion dollars over the past 2 decades on high quality vaccine programs in which congress mandated and paid for research and development of Recombinant Vaccine technology using 21st century genetic engineering.
Then once a virus was identified we could more quickly and effectively immunize ourselves beyond just testing.
Instead we use antiquated chicken egg methods because vaccine makers won't invest in cutting edge technology which won't produce return on investment in the next quarter. And it would be expensive and perhaps not profitable for a decade all depending on the appearance of the next plague virus or bacteria. Hence, the need for government to step in.
We can learn from these mistakes. Many might needlessly die from Covid 19 but it is not too late to divert adequate resources from endless wars to medical R & D preparing for 21st century infectious foes ignoring all walls likely far worse than this Co V 2 virus. Not to mention we can be prepared for biological war.
And quality vaccines are just the half of what needs doing to be prepared for microscopic enemies to come.
Big government? Bring it on.
35
This article is very important. Of course many Americans will not go to the trouble to read and understand this chronology and will instead believe administration talking points that they are and have been doing a wonderful job. Even the travel restrictions they brag about - were placed one day AFTER the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency. Leading from the rear, that's where we are, that's what we've come to. Pay attention America - this administration's incompetency is now clearly resulting in loss of life.
24
People will die because of the delayed CDC testing. Where does the buck stop?
18
@Liberal Not Lemming
Maybe someone can find the sign that Harry Truman used when he was in the oval office.
3
Keep this laser sharp focus - China started this and other viruses, epidemics and pandemics. The buck or renminbi stops there. That the West is incompetent or unprepared is on us, but the fault lies squarely on Beijing. So what can we do about it? Firstly, we have to prepare for future man-made and natural occurring plagues, individually, locally, at the state and federal levels; lastly internationally - but not through the feckless WHO.
This is bordering on criminal. There has been a huge delay in identifying cases, EVEN to this minute. The CDC is entirely at fault and more insidiously, how has the Trump administration been to blame? Like an autocrat, all information exists to validate the fealty of the underlings to him. WHY is the number of citizens tested been removed from the website? WHO did that? We need whistleblowers like never before. Our country is now so at risk and chances to mitigate this thing have been irreputably squandered.
23
@Somebody... irreparably... oops
Labs make mistakes. Bad ones. Did nature cause this outbreak? China says yes. Many say no, including epidemiologist Dr. Fang Chi-Tai of National Taiwan University.
The Wuhan wet market amplified the virus but was not the source. (The Lancet reports several initial victims had no contact with the Wuhan market.) But the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) is nearby. Lab Director Zhengli-Li Shi described her research in 2015 (Nature Medicine, Vol. 21, No. 12). *
Shi created a coronavirus with a novel spike protein that easily and quickly infected lung tissues. Shi wrote “We built a chimeric virus encoding a novel zoonotic CoV spike protein” and called it ‘SHC014-MA15’. The lungs of two groups of mice, one old, one young were infected with it. The old mice died, the young mice lived. That’s happening to us now. Rogue or negligent dual-use experimentation is another risk factor in labs.
Shi wrote in 2015 “the potential to prepare for and mitigate future outbreaks must be weighed against the risk of creating more dangerous pathogens”. The lab makes deadly chimeric respiratory viruses and did one escape in 2019? Chinese labs are porous - SARS accidentally escaped a Beijing government lab three times in 2004. There is a certain risky culture or mindset in Chinese bio labs. Xi Jinping and others last week ordered China’s research labs to be made safer “to protect The People”. Nature or man?
* https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985.pdf
11
@Opus
Cut out the fringe conspiracy theories. This virus was found over the last 2 years in bats in China, which is why epidemiologists have been warning about the dangers of wildlife food markets.
Occam's Razor is real.
4
The only "real issue" is Trump's completely baseless spin that the president can control the economy or even influence basic metrics. Until the Trump fog of lies, no credible economist would credit a president with the state of the economy, good or bad.
Trump, however, knows that if he fails to win reelection, he's likely to be prosecuted and sent to jail.
That appears to be his only concern.
Then, of course, there's the nagging detail: an epidemic is loose in the country.
5
The root cause of this problem is that Obama created a public health task force to deal with problems like the Ebola epidemic, and Trump abolished it. (Trumps's reason, apparently, was simply that it was an Obama accomplishment).
A test kit is one of the first critical paths at the beginning of an epidemic, because you can't manage the problem until you measure it. At this point, we should give up on test kits and buy them from China, where they're manufacturing (I think) 1.6 million kits a week.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/31/coronavirus-china-trump-united-states-public-health-emergency-response/
Trump Has Sabotaged America’s Coronavirus Response
As it improvises its way through a public health crisis, the United States has never been less prepared for a pandemic.
By Laurie Garrett
Foreign Policy
January 31, 2020
"In 2018, the Trump administration fired the government’s entire pandemic response chain of command, including the White House management infrastructure."
4
What an amazing hoax, this virus. So realistic.
5
Maybe we are not testing people because if we don't test then we don't find and then we can brag that only a few people have the corona virus and we are so awesome that we stopped the virus in its tracks.
2
John Hopkins has put out this information: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
It seems to be straightforward data in the land of disinformation which is coming from the Executive Branch.
4
Yes, let's be very careful about voting for a socialist while we wait for the government to protect us against this virus. One assumes this socialist will do a better job of keeping the country's interests front of mind rather than pharma companies and Wall Street investors. And, by the way, was anyone comforted by the presentation by the VP, with all of its "our beloved leader" rhetoric?
Not to worry, though. Trump's April miracle is only four weeks away.
12
When they finally start testing appropriately there will be a jump in cases overnight and that will increase exponentially. Genetic testing will show the virus has been circulating since January, before flights were stopped. This is what happened in Italy.
There is ZERO reason to believe that the industrial region of Lombardy in Italy was more connected to China, in January, than major cities in US, with all their international companies and universities.
21
Trump's denuding of health and science professionals at departments, etc. has exacerbated most of our problems.
Lay on top of that is his Disinterest in Governing, which he does very poorly anyway due to Cognitive Limitations coupled with total Disinterest.
11
It is worrisome that the Trump government is considering private company profit over American health. If there was a German test that was adopted by WHO and was ready to go, the CDC should have used it.
Instead, we have Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar who said, “We would want to ensure that we work to make it affordable, but we can’t control that price because we need the private sector to invest. The priority is to get vaccines and therapeutics. Price controls won’t get us there."
In other words, it's not important to get a test that works as soon as possible; it's not important that it's affordable, but it is important to Alex Azar that the private sector invest and profit from the test.
15
How did a most respected public health organization, the Centers for Disease Control, become so arrogant in their thinking and insist on developing its own testing method even as its flaws became evident, manufacture slow and results in accurate. In my world of medical device design & development, we call this symptom -NIH; this acronym does NOT stand for National Institute of Health rather
NOT INVENTED HERE.
It represents the attitude and executive policy by organizations large & small to advance the In-House design over anything ideas devised elsewhere even if the ‘foreign’ , outside concept & methods are better, more efficient or less costly.
This tack has purpose for intellectual property reasons within competitive corporations but for public health organizations when thousands of lives are at stake such a policy is inhuman, contrary to public wellbeing and possibly criminal.
I hope that the USA follows the World Health Organization’s lead and imports the German diagnostic devices in order to supplement our nations immediate and urgent demand.
8
I simply don’t understand how we are botching the testing preparedness so badly. We are acting as though China didn’t literally gift us, and the rest of the world, with more than a MONTH to get ready for this! Our country is like the sulky teenager on the world stage, refusing to even listen to reality. We might as well start stomping our feet and locking ourselves in our bedrooms with our AirPods.
82
@Suzie
What is not to understand about a country that is presently in the hands of science deniers and mediocre sycophants. An interest rate cut to try and protect the monied classes was very quick in coming. Proper testing and health care? Nope.
30
@Suzie Have you still not realized that the egomania in the WH doesn't care about anything or anyone except his needy ego. He wasted time lying dems created the C-Virus hoax and you have to be a complete fool to say something like that;trump IS the problem;he IS incompetent; he DID fire the entire CDC PANDEMIC STAFF; trumpsters will come here and lie while people die because they willfully believe the cult leader;remember where Jim Jones lead his cult; time to wake up
3
@Suzie: Seems like a cover up, doesn't it? No tests, no people with the virus.
6
It is time for the USA to stop beating its' chest, take the test kits from the WHO and distribute them to hospitals to begin the testing accordingly.
Everyone knows the horror stories reported in this article about people who cannot be tested because they do not "fit" the profile. Enough of these tyrannical ways of dealing with what could be a great loss of life if we do not handle this situation properly.
Swallow your pride, America. The tests are available, just say, thanks.
12
This is just bizarre. Given the proclivity of our current president to give no real thought to the impact of his ignorance, we have now cut the legs off our public health system. Coronavirus feels almost like biblical retribution.....I am waiting for Trump to self-quarantine in his bedroom because he is a germophobe....probably best thing that can happen for the country.
9
@BA
And let Trump's fanatical base continue to populate his political rallies (he'll appear by video), sneezes and coughing disregarded because Coronovirus is a "hoax", and then suffer the consequences of his ignorance.
1
Blame Trump.
1
@PJM
First blame Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, then blame Trump for appointing a lobbyist to that job.
If we had pros at the helm we probably wouldn't be having this problem.
2
Shame on the people who are responsible for degrading our health first and foremost with such ridiculous confusion regarding criteria and testing.
I was criticized by another commenter today for opposing Donald Trump and bringing him into equations.
Well, if you cannot have a President and a VP who make this country safe - who is to blame?
Average, run of the mill citizens have hardly any power - except to vote. And we will, yes, be dedicated to making a change in DC, from White House throughout Congress this year.
As a nurse of decades, I’ve seen suffering. I’ve also seen treatment and healing.
But I have never, ever, ever heard a president call a healthcare crisis a hoax, like this one has. Cut your $$$ interest. Make it about money.
Whatever - but citizens and healthcare workers deserve better than what has been doled out here.
And yes, the buck stops here - with Donald J. trump.
121
@MIMA Way to bring your hatred of our President into a healthcare issue. Go somewhere else.
1
@Laurie
Laurie, you attribute the reasonable criticisms directed toward Trump's absolute inadequacy in dealing with this disease to "hatred"?? Hatred is an emotional response.
We look at Trump's actions in 2018 (cutting money for CDC epidemic prevention activities, eliminating a position on the National Security Council that coordinated global pandemic response, firing members of CDC's Infectious Disease Response Team, etc).
Trump's actions limited the ability of the U.S. to respond to this disease (just wait until testing finally becomes available....another outcome of Trump's failures....and the true extent of it becomes known).
We look at this and with reason, we hold him responsible. This has nothing to do with "hatred".
16
@Laurie
Freedom of speech----Remember?
3
“'How come the South Koreans can do 10,000 tests a day and we can’t?” said Ralph Baric."
Professor Baric is known for his habit of understatement, very much like his colleagues across the community that study infectious diseases. His question points out the incompetence of our public health system, particularly that of the CDC.
One of the reasons is that we have a fragmented system where accountability is not clear. From county public health officials to the Secretary of HHS (and now, maybe, sort of, the Vice President), there are myriad levels of responsibility. Add to that spectrum overlapping and conflicting agencies and jurisdictions where HHS and DHS and CDC and NIH et etc. fight for resources all the time and no one coordinates across them.
We (mostly) solved a similar problem in creating the Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs where the identity of who is in charge is not a question. Why cannot we do the same for our public health system?
9
I changed my mind. The US need Pence to fight the coronavirus.
3
We have so monumentally messed this up. In all of Europe, there is an emergency phone number to call. They tell you how to get tested and where or where not to go. It’s a coordinated effort, they are keeping track of folks, and they actually know who is sick. What exactly are we doing l?! Ugh.
9
So Trump got rid of all the pandemic testing and response infrastructure that Obama was prescient enough to develop and impliment. Now he'll probably prevent an effective response because it might make him look incompetant. I guess we're down to thoughts and prayers.
15
Why isn’t the press at hospitals and interviewing more doctors on the ground? The best reports are coming from comments here.
We can’t trust anything coming from our government so the press is our only hope.
9
If Trump hadn’t gutted the CDC and demeaned the leaders of the CDC, this would not have occurred.
4
Trump botched this effort by cutting funding for CDC and our response to such epidemics. He then denied the USA would suffer, which claim was bolstered by a failure to test as described in this article. That's what happens when a demagogue shoves science aside for political reasons. Wishful thinking is typical of authoritarian regimes like China which at first told the doctor who sounded the alarm about the coronavirus to shut up. It was just a hoax, I guess? The USA seems to have followed its example by limiting testing. Trump is no manager. He is all bluster and false claims, showing his ignorance of both this virus and the flu in his public erroneous comments about fatality rates. Instead of swiftly containing the spread of the virus by identifying, isolating and treating sick people , we are now playing catch up — a tragic consequence of incompetence. The resulting spread of the virus and the expanded death count is on him.
6
Friends of mine who live in NYC just returned from Iran. They were there for 48 hours for the husband's mother's funeral. They have self quarantined for the last 10 days with no symptoms; however, they have been calling their doctor almost every day to get tested for the virus and no response. There is no protocol, no availability of tests and no testing without symptoms. This is the reality on the ground as to how health officials are dealing with the threat. Shameful.
5
Don't be surprised the CDC is not publishing numbers. Like all government agencies, they won't do anything that makes Donald Trump look bad. Nothing else matters.
17
The CDC is apparently politicized to the point of incompetence. My guess is that pressure from the current administration caused a low-key effort by the CDC vs the No-Holds-Barred response needed, to get ahead of the situation, leading to this total failure of a response.
So now the CDC is even withholding information from the public. Sound familiar?
https://www.newsweek.com/coronavirus-cases-tested-us-removed-cdc-website-according-congressman-american-people-1490158
4
The cutting of the Fed rate this morning by 50 points demonstrates precisely why America is rotten to the core. Health care, meh. Money, oh my god, oh my god!!
15
We need to know why we had this gigantic failure. If it's just incompetence we need to replace the people who are incompetent. If it turns out to be a failure based on a political decision to minimize the seriousness of this outbreak to benefit a particular politician, this needs to be widely disseminated. It is not the first time politicians act in their self-interest rather than the self-interest of the entire community. We need to know the truth. Then we can act on.
The New York Times and ProPublica have the resources. We need the answer as soon as practicable. If
7
Ah, US exceptionalism, once again. We’re US! We’re #1! Everything WE do is vastly superior to anything anyone else anywhere on earth can ever do or has ever done, so forget about their better mousetraps.
Add that to an inept, corrupt, so-called presidential administration that has gutted regulations, undermined the authority of civil servants, dismantled necessary practices and protocols just because they came under a previous administration, and so on, and voila!
Well done, squatter in the White House.
5
This is a serious scandal. However, scandals are a dime a dozen in the Trump Administration and Congress had abdicated it’s oversight duty in the name of partisan fidelity. Disgusting. What do you expect when people who don’t believe in good government are elected to run the government.
10
As I commented yesterday, but is even more apparent today, is the disparity with what has been established as the 'death rate'==2%, and what is happening in Washington State--6 deaths with only about 30 known cases. Obviously, either the pathogen is
vastly more dangerous, or many many more people infected are walking around--untested--and causing an untold spread of sickness. What particularly irks is the partisan stupidity of Trump, his sons' statements and the accusations of his sycophants, while we're all at risk. and personally, I doubt my 96 year old bod could handle it.
7
King County Health Department in Seattle purchased an entire motel and is going to use mobile structures units to house infected people.
In other words, they know everyone with the virus has not been detected, and that it will spread.
Trump, Making America Sick Again.
6
I would like someone to evaluate/determine whether this botched CDC effort to diagnose is the DIRECT result of stupid decisions by the Trump administration. The Trump admin gutted the CDC, probably purged some of the best scientists/leaders they had. How much blame does this sit at the (incompetent) feet of Trump?
4
Public health researchers use the terms "availability" and "accessibility" of care to measure quality of health services. In the US, the Covid-19 test has largely been unavailable due to centralized decision making. Even if it now becomes more widely available it is not accessible to those who cant afford the fee. Consequently, we should all expect problems to emerge that cannot easily be addressed in the system that we have. As a grad of Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, I feel this has been a long time coming and will be a hard fall for the US.
9
I live in Seattle, and a week ago I came down with fever, cough, fatigue, muscle aches; I did have the flu shot this fall. I emailed my doctor TWICE in the past week. In both cases, I was told that if I had not been in direct contact with someone with coronavirus, and I hadn't been overseas, they didn't need to see me or test me.
Maybe I had the flu. Or maybe I had coronavirus. But since we know it's spreading person to person in the Seattle area, I think this is nuts. I teach high school and 150 kids a day come through my classroom (in addition to the staff I see daily, people in the halls, etc.). I stayed home for more than 24 hours after my fever subsided and I'm practicing good hygiene, but if we know this is spreading person to person and we know it's in my area (my school is just a few miles from the Life Care facility with the huge outbreaks)....why on earth wouldn't they want to test me?!
I am a healthy person with no major risk factors for succumbing to major problems even if it was coronavirus, but what about the people in my greater community?
When the W.H.O. warned that some countries needed to do better in their prevention efforts, I think this is what they were talking about. I can't miss two weeks of work because I maybe-possibly-might-have had coronavirus, and I've done as much due diligence as possible, been as responsible as possible, notified my healthcare team.
I think that the way this is being handled is a huge mistake. I hope I'm wrong.
69
@Kristina The incubation period is much longer than 24 hours. If you do have it, you could STILL be infecting people. Anyone who feels they might be infected should self-quarantine.
How often is the CDC providing updates on the number of test kits in production, the number that have actually been distributed and the number that are on back order? The public should be demanding daily updates on these metrics as well as weekly updates on progress (if any) towards a vaccine. There needs to be full transparency and frequent communication from the Government or eventually you are going to end up with social media induced panic.
15
Just last week people were yelling that the Trump Administration needed to stop interfering and allow the CDC to do its job. Turns out intervention is greatly needed. Kudos to the Trump Administration for taking charge and trying to work out all the glitches in a rapid response.
Hopefully its pressure on vaccine producers will speed things up there as well.
5
@AACNY Who said "the administration" intervened? It might have actually been one of the federal agency employees that the administration has not (yet) driven away.
4
@AACNY
Kudos?
You apparently read a different article.
Frankly, the stringent "requirements" for testing sound very much like an attempt to under-test and under-report an epidemic.
For political reasons.
At this point, the Trump "Administration" has zero credibility.
19
@AACNY
Trump gutted the CDC. Kudos to the Trump Administration? For putting Mike Pence in charge? I dearly hope I am wrong but can’t help but wonder how an administration that has so thoroughly cleansed itself of anything other than Trump sycophants and science deniers will cope with the coming pandemic. Coupled with the fact that almost a third of the population has inadequate or zero health coverage, I think your confidence in this Admistration is sorely misplaced.
20
The US should have adopted the German test kit approved by WHO and should also stop advertising itself as having 'the best healthcare system in the world.' It does not. It has one of the worst among developed nations and everyone knows it. Except Americans. The evidence is there for anyone who wants to see it.
67
Follow the $$$ here as always with US healthcare decisions... who was going to
Profit from making these tests? And how hard can it be? The test packet is standard- a swab for the mouth, a tube to
Place it in. You just need the reagent and that can be produced and sent out separately
8
@Patricia Finlay
I saw a video Yesterday of travelers, many wearing masks, arriving from Iran in Canada yesterday. No Screening, just recommendation to voluntary self isolate for two weeks. Good thing you are focused on what's happening here huh?
3
There needs to be a look at what companies might profit from test kits made in the USA vs purchasing existing kits from Germany.
29
I’m impressed that tests were available so quickly. Ok, so the first one needed improvement.
4
@Frederick Varricchio
With this comment, and others, it's pretty clear that pro-Trump trolls have invaded the NYTimes forum for this article.
I base this on the counter-factual remarks made here for an article that clearly demonstrates massive and possibly intentional incompetence.
5
@Frederick Varricchio
I'm impressed that the World Health Organisation tests were available so quickly. Ok so the "America First" approach still needs improvement...
As your northern neighbor, i'm so, so sorry for your health care research funding cuts. Sigh...
2
Kits have been available overseas for months.
4
Any thought about what effect cutting the CDC budget and dismantling the office established to deal with contagious disease might have to do with this?
We offered help to Iran because"we have the best medical system in the world". When the current Ebola epidemic in Africa could have used our help based on successful US intervention in the previous African epidemic we made no offer of help.
19
It appears as though our own government doesn't want us to know how widespread this virus is in our country. Anyone with symptoms who is denied testing should report it to their local newspaper. Maybe shaming our government into timely testing is our only option at this point.
53
@Barb What local paper? Seventy percent of local newspapers are gone due to the switch to the Internet for news and advertising. I know because I lost my job on a local paper and could never find another one. That is the Reality we now have.
7
@Jim I'm sorry about that. My small town still has a local paper, but perhaps you can report to a larger metro newspaper.
1
The CDC and FDA should have let university labs use their own COVID-1 tests. The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics infectious disease group had a test ready days ago and it could have been put to use.
41
@Jacquie
Mistakes were made. Mistakes are quickly being addressed.
2
@AACNY Mistake were made but it is too late now, the horse is already out of the barn.
3
@AACNY
"Mistakes were made"......and those in the Trump administration MADE THEM. How can you possibly believe that any of the people in power will be able to fix anything?
5
The only way to get in front of the fight against this virus is to have testing kits ready weeks ago. If this sentence makes no sense, neither does the response America has made to the looming pandemic. It's now too late to stop the infection from spreading.
The only thing left for the C.D.C. and the Trump administration to do is invest heavily in damage control, circle the wagons, and insist their response has been perfect. Problem solved.
November can't come soon enough.
65
This is the beginning of the "what went wrong" looks at what happened when the Covid-19 virus came to the U.S. So far the federal efforts (CDC, HHS, FDA) have not been inspiring. Perhaps if they can't do anything well they should step aside and give state and local agencies more authority.
I really don't have much faith that a Covid-19 coordinated by Mike Pence will do much more than PR damage control.
32
@J.C. Hayes No problem he will pray for us and if you get sick, well it’s God’s will.
5
@J.C. Hayes
Pence's only purpose is to "muzzle" anyone who speaks out on Trump's response being inadequate. Pence doesn't seem to hold news conferences unless they are related to campaign events.
5
@J.C. Hayes
Remember it took a long time to convince M.Pence to finally accept a clean needles solution to stop the spreading HIV death in his own State...
Let's pray that he will act swiftly according to science.
Just let him meditate on it for a month or two...
4
Ask a simple question:
To what extent has the CDC - a formerly well trusted federal agency - been "Trumpified?"
Meaning, in federal agencies, the process by which competent dedicated officials from the last administration have been replaced by anti-government conservatives whose loyalty to Trump is the criteria for the job rather than expertise or devotion to public service.
That's the most dangerous, fast spreading virus we've faced for three years.
103
@Paul King The only thing the Trump Administration has left to do is start producing respirators at a breakneck speed. The Virus is already out of control and spreading.
3
@Paul King
If the US doesn't deliver faster, it will be the most dangerous, fast spreading virus we've faced for three hundred years...
3
It’s not just bureaucratic paralysis and stonewalling by the CDC and FDA, whose policies in actual fact affect the development and approval of many drugs, tests and vaccines in America. That’s usually a good thing, because it insures rigorous testing before releasing anything to the public. There’s no way on earth that anyone could have developed either a vaccine or a medicine for coronavirus in time for this pandemic. We’ll have one for the next time. However, the problem is further complicated by the fact that we are in peak flu season. It seems like everyone here in Houston has had the flu recently or has it now. My son works in a hospital and came down with a cough and fever yesterday. His hospital does not have the test for coronavirus. He went to occupational health and was sent home with Tamiflu. Is he most likely to have the plain old flu, or coronavirus? We’ll never know, but most probably he has regular flu. It doesn’t do any good now to point fingers or politicizing the problem. What is needed is the rapid development and distribution of tests - to be administered for free - and given to people who present with flu-like symptoms. Then isolate and quarantine those who test positive. You’re surely not going to test 350 million people. That’s ridiculous. In the meantime, practice good hygiene principles and for God’s sake if you feel sick, don’t go out and infect everyone else.
14
@Bob Kale - The Hospital your son works in has a lab that could easily replicate the Coronavirus test and do it immediately. CDC could email the protocols in a second. So could any number of other hospitals in Texas, various health departments across Texas and numerous college and university labs. Add to all that the private labs and pharmaceutical capacity, We have a robust and diverse capacity. What we also have is a central government in Washington that must be in control.
17
@Mkm : Why wasn't your son given a flu test?
Also, as to your comment, "There’s no way on earth that anyone could have developed either a vaccine or a medicine for coronavirus in time for this pandemic. We’ll have one for the next time." Baloney. A coronavirus vaccine or treatment could/should have been developed in the wake of the earlier SARS outbreak, but efforts to develop a vaccine were abandoned once the immediate crisis passed.
3
@Bob Kale. Was your son tested for Influenza A or B before being given Tamiflu? That would have narrowed the diagnosis down.
2
Our leaders’ mantra has been “Do more with less” year in and year out since the Great Recession hit in 2009. This is across businesses, government and non-profits. So mistakes now are the obvious result after leaders have slashed expertise and appropriate staffing levels during the decade. If Boeing mistakes crashed its new jet, it’s no surprise that the CDC has a flawed testing program. Perhaps we can learn that a death spiral strategy of “do more with less” is a losing strategy for us all.
43
Loosening the highly regulated testing process would go a long way in opening up access to tests. Centralizing it at CDC seems like a mistake in hindsight.
11
There are critical questions which this Administration must provide clear and accurate answers to. Particularly, why didn’t the C.D.C., after the hugely consequential failure of its preferred, initial domestic testing kit, not quickly turn to acquiring the perfected W.H.O. test which had been developed in Germany? Invaluable, precious time was thereby lost allowing the unknown spread of the virus by asymptomatic infected people within this country. Was this decision made by political appointees at the C.D.C., possibly favoring commercial companies with direct connections to the Trump White House? With this corrupt Administration one cannot dismiss the possibility that decisions were made not by the acclaimed scientists and physicians at the C.D.C. but by lay agency employees motivated by a purely political agenda. The fear, of course, is allowing this totally unacceptable behavior to occur again, when faced with a new public health crisis. We must get to the “bottom” of these profoundly flawed decisions.
109
May I add that this widespread, deep infiltration and control of our largely nonpartisan federal departments and agencies by solely politically conscious Administration appointees has become a nefarious hallmark of the Trump era. Witness the corrupted decision-making that has occurred within the E.P.A., State, Justice, Agriculture, Interior, Justice, O.M.B., etc., etc. Why should this be any different at the C.D.C.?
18
@John Grillo You cannot fix stupid, but you can vote it out of office.
8
China seems to be way ahead of us on all this: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#news . It seems very unlikely that we can or will catch up, sadly.
16
Save the recriminations for later. Mistakes were made, but that's water over the dam now. Focus on doing things right now!
6
Are we supposed to trust the same people who botched the initial response and caved to political pressure? The trust is gone! Credibility matters in situations like this!
17
@john640
"Mistakes were made"???
You realize of course that that passive construction was used by Ronald Reagan to divert attention from his disastrous and direct involvement in an arms-for-hostages deal that he swore would never happen on his watch.
So if you are shilling for Trump, try to sound more convincing.
5
This is bad not only because of the possible epidemiological effects.
Following his character of trying to find a scapegoat to accept the responsibility he should be accepting, Trump will probably use this as an occasion to replace everybody he can in the health care establishment with anti-vaccinators and other such non-scientific -- but politically loyal -- types.
Jared Kushner to the rescue!
28
“It’s just a very American approach to say, ‘We’re the U.S., the major U.S. public health lab, and we’re going to not follow the leader,’” Dr. Mina said regarding why we are not using the W.H.O. test.
Our American hubris will be the death of many of us. Time to start thinking globally!
65
@Clayton Lewis : I thought the same thing when I read that sentence. Anyone who travels outside the country knows that we are unexceptional in almost every way these days and that people in countries we are indoctrinated to look down on actually live much better lives than we do. American exceptionalism: the great lie.
12
Trump was criticized for acting too quickly by blocking visitors from Asia. Now we hear that some arrived a few days earlier and infected people in Washington state. I expect that Trump will now be criticized for acting too slowly. I really would like to hear the Democrat Candidates’ positions on allowing persons from our southern border to rush into the US for treatment when they believe that they are ill. Everyone knows that Trump is only in favor of orderly, legal immigration.
5
@Rock Winchester
Please don't focus on the so-called "southern border."
If you look at where the new cases of COVID-19 are in the US, the cases come from USA tourists coming home from European vacations such as Italy (one here in FL) or students returning from studies in Europe or China. Mexico has fewer cases than the US.
There are very few cases in Central America or South America so far. More than likely this is due to lack of testing to date.
Trump has cut "legal" immigration to a very low number. This includes (as an example,) elderly Canadians who marry USA citizens which is not uncommon in my condo complex!
The USA needs immigrants in our rural areas to build the new businesses and populate schools. Much of the rural health care is done by immigrants. It is foolishness (like Trump's tariff policy which hurts farmers) to restrict people who are needed in the USA.
4
@Rock Winchester Dear Trumpy: Go watch FOX NEWS and read articles on their website to comment on. You are simply here repeating the nonsense being posted over there. Trump is the problem, not the solution, and the virus only exposed it more openly for more people to see it.
2
@Rock Winchester
Actually for those of us in Canada, that idea of rush of immediate neighbours jumping the southern border for medical treatment and cheaper pharmaceuticals is the stuff of nightmares.
1
The coronavirus seems to be hitting a perfect storm of incompetence and mismanagement at all levels here. First, Trump gutted the pandemic response team that Obama assembled just out of sheer petty spite, taking out an agency that might have been able to rapidly mobilize a response, then, he’s muzzled anyone who contradicts his rosy forecasts because he’s afraid of how the stock market will react. The CDC itself, hampered by budget cuts and probably horrendously low morale amongst its remaining staff bungled its testing kit and either CDC or Trump administration made the idiotic rule to limit testing. Now that the virus has gotten multiple footholds all over the country we will see how a health care system where too many people are uninsured and a government that doesn’t care and will charge for testing and quarantine will hold up because too many of the most vulnerable will stay away from medical facilities and go to work out of sheer economic necessity further impacting all of us and making it impossible to stop the spread of disease. Add to that Pence who will do no better than pray the disease away and we look worse than a third world country in our response to this pandemic. ALL of this is thanks to the GOP which has kept the US from protecting its citizens in every way in the name of greed.
153
@NMY
Imagine how our current draconian approach to the undocumented among us will discourage them from doing anything except hiding from pandemic investigaters.
8
@NMY remember this in november.
5
@NMY
Don't forget the Trump/Republican anti-Science agenda which has led to citizens of the USA being put at risk.
5
This must be fake news. The President assured us the situation was under control, it was not an issue in America, and that the government was ready to deal with the virus.
25
@Rocky Thankfully, the CHOSEN ONE has said that the virus will, "Just miraculously go away!"
4
@Rocky Nothing but fairy tales by a very very insecure man
4
Trump has made it very clear that he did not care about the effect that coronavirus had on the American public as much as worried about how it would hurt his stock market. This is disgraceful, putting numbers ahead of human life.
59
CDC protocols are strict to reduce false positives.
5
@northlander - yes, and to limit waste of valuable testing resources. When infectious diseases hit, everyone wants to be tested. But this doesn't work.
2
@northlander False positives would be less harmful than people unknowingly spreading the virus through their communities.
1
@northlander But they were foolishly strict when it came to this virus. Same is true in Canada bc idiotically we followed the CDC lead. And CDC
test kits didn't work anyway.
1
This (CDC incompetency) is unbelievable misfeasance and criminal! I have more trust in the Chinese CDC who has forcefully taken charge in China, and appears to have an abundance of equipment and resources, and trained staff available from the very beginning of this burgeoning event onward! Very disturbing with our CDC’s lackadaisical response. And don’t tell me that medical face masks don’t help to prevent the spread of this virus either!
7
@Moe
Do not blame the CDC for this. The ability of the CDC to respond to pandemics was sharply curtrailed by Trump in 2018 when he cut off money, thus forcing downsizing. The GOP is big on "personal responsibility". Blame Trump.
1
@Moe
Another reply to you.....Is it possible that this post was ghost-written by Stephen Miller, (advisor to Trump) as an attempt to deflect criticism from his boss and place the blame on CDC?
1
This is the latest in a series of dropped signs that this administration has no leadership.
Trump has handed off this Hoax to Mike Pence.
Pence has no scientific experience or expertise.
Where was Trump when we first heard of this? Playing
golf in January!
24
@The Chief from Cali Not only that. He headed to India for his largest ever Trump rally just as fears about the virus were heating up.
3
@The Chief from Cali
The only "hoax" at this point is that Trump has any interest in accomplishing anything that benefits the nation instead of himself.
3
@The Chief from Cali Pence will conveniently be tossed under the bus when Trump announces a new running mate via TWEET.
5
Now I think I cannot trust any news for true information. That is like China and Russia.
16
Make no mistake - this is the Trump administration's fault. We could have had the WHO test weeks ago, but the decisions at the executive level were "no."
Trump initially wanted to pretend like it was not in the US. Now he has allowed the virus to silently spread everywhere, creating a much bigger and more dangerous situation.
77
@Jeff
Can there never be a time when a situation isn't used as an excuse to bash the president? Enough already!
4
@AACNY
It's your position that this potentially catastrophic situation (read about the Spanish Flu) is being used as "an excuse to bash the president"?? He is directly responsible for where the U.S. is now with respect to this disease! The GOP emphasizes "personal responsibility". So, look to your president.
4
“May gain a toehold...”
It’s here, and it’s been spread for weeks and weeks.
Here in California, we’re resigned to the fact that chances are countless people have the virus and are spreading the virus but have no way to tell if they, specifically, are carriers. There are no tests, and no resources, and apparently no one at the wheel.
It’s pretty scary, but what can you do? Drop the kids off at school, then go to work and hope for the best. The CDC and federal help are nowhere to be seen.
46
One of my MD colleagues in Boise travelled to Seattle recently, now has a fever and a cough. Can't get him tested because he does't meet any of the case definitions the CDC has put out. Coronavirus is all around us already and we don't know it. The CDC has botched this big time, but I wonder how much Trump has had to do with that?
100
@APB
Just this past week everyone was clamoring to give the CDC professionals a voice and control. People were complaining they were being "muzzled".
What a difference a week makes.
10
How is it that some countries are testing 10,000+ people a day and the US can't test more than a few dozen?
The US healthcare system is the world's most expensive failure. Yet another reason for the sort of fundamental reform advocated by the likes of Senator Sanders.
117
Beware of Trumpist dis-information, which is being spread all over the world (according to pundits I'm reading -- and you can see it in the comments section here).
You might ironically call this disease the Donald Cold-- his mouthpieces are calling it that, a cold. But it ain't no cold.
The disinformation is always about mortality rates. However, all forms of influenza reach 1/3 of any population, but only a fraction of that is "reported" to officials, because most influenza cases are mild and not treated.
Therefore, it's the DEATHS from TREATED cases that counts in comparisons of mortality from one flu to the next. On that basis, CORVID-19 is still 10 times more deadly than the Swine Flu of recent years, although not as deadly as SARS, but SARS was much harder to catch. Young emergency physicians and front-line workers are dying from Corvid-19.
18
To visualize what it means to have botched production of the test kits, think back to grade school when you coughed into the Petri dish and waited one week.
6
Removing the number of tests administered from the website means there is no denominator. A number of "confirmed cases" is listed but without the number of tests administered, there is no way to answer the question, "Compared to what?" We do not know the extent or distribution (location) of the virus without appropriate testing results. Further, how many and where are there clusters of unusual pneumonia cases in the last several months, or even in the last several weeks? Testing within these clusters would also provide information on community transmission. It is heartbreaking to witness the very poor public health testing (not) coming from the world's leading public health agency.
49
I just went to see my internist yesterday for a matter unrelated to Covid-19 yesterday. He is a highly experienced and respected internist. He was beside himself - which I've never seen in my 10+ years being his patient. He said he has no guidelines from the government, doesn't know what to tell his patients and concluded "nobody knows what to do". This is the mess that we have been put in.
139
What we have is an undiagnosed pandemic. You can count the number of infected if you can't test for the disease. Fortunately, actual cases/diagnosed cases is anywhere between 10:1 and 38:1. As mortality is being reported at around 3% based on DIAGNOSED/CONFIRMED cases ONLY, actual mortality is anywhere from 10 to 38 times LESS than 3%.
9
@Blankfiend What?? Where did you get these ratios, and what about unconfirmed mortality? You are just trying to minimize the potential impact, a la "Trump's Flu".
4
@Blankfiend
Survival rates are rarely mentioned. Neither is the medical history of those who have died. The problem is the "volume", not the virus itself. People seem to get angry when they are told this, however.
It's almost as though they want to be hysterical.
3
@Mtkailas
Sources for my numbers regarding actual versus diagnosed cases: 10x (Johns Hopkins CSSE) to 38x (Wu, et. al., Lancet, 2020). Uncomfirmed mortality may be a minor factor, but unlikely to make a significant impact given current awareness. I would almost trust Chinese figures more than anything coming out of Trump's administration.
3