Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

I'm willing to bet it started way earlier than this

 

The testing to reopen our country really doesn't make any sense, I get the reasoning. Say a group of 100 employees was tested today and was cleared to work, half of them went out to lunch and one came into contact with somebody or product that has this flu like virus on it. Is the employer supposed to check every employee daily, weekly or monthly? How are they supposed to afford this? Either way it would have been too late for those who have a weak immune system or other underlying conditions. Like the flu many of us get it each, many of us don't take vaccines, many of us recover with no problems, this isn't any different. Those who have underlying conditions should be required to self quarantine, take vaccines not the entire country.

 

Obviously not. She was supposed to be ramping up the panic so we could start to strangle the economy. Pushed us back weeks.

 

With a competent testing plan, you could quickly identify a hot spot and trace the contacts , get them isolated and minimize blanket spread. I think those might be good things.

 

And next you're going to mention the Feb. and March Maga rallies? sigh

 

We don't know who supported it or who opposed it. Trump should be innocent until proven guilty. I'll wait until I hear some information from the CDC that they lobbied to get the German test and Trump denied them. If Trump really did shoot that idea down, it is almost unheard of in this day and age that no one in the CDC would have either spoken up directly (and risked losing their jobs) or made an off-the-record statement to the media (who would have gone nuts with this revelation). The fact that there has been no such statement forthcoming after several months (and I'm sure the CDC is at least 50% liberal) tells me that someone in the CDC made the call that they could do without the German tests. Either Trump went along with that, or he wasn't informed. A lot of generals have resigned based on disagreements with Trump's philosophies.

I don't doubt that there were some things that Trump stuck his nose in and messed things up. I'll wait for someone to speak up and tell me what those things were before I blame Trump for them. So far, the CDC has a proven record of gross incompetence, so it is far more likely that the CDC screwed up and Trump has been covering for them (much like GWB covered for the FBI after 9-11).

 

To increase testing earlier you buy the German test or the S Korean tests until you have your own available at scale...

 

Yep. That's called Monday morning quarterbacking. Take something that went badly, find someone and blame them, ignoring any and all evidence that there might have been someone else at fault. Blame the person for not being an expert in infectious diseases.

We don't know what Trump pushed for or did not push for. We don't know what Trump tried to understand or did not try to understand. We weren't in the room. We do know that the dozen or so people in the CDC who were in the room have not talked about it to the media. Normally, when you have that many people who are committed to doing their jobs the right way, at least one of them will either make off-the-record comments to the media or they will resign. Many Army generals have resigned under Trump. Everyone in the CDC has remained quiet. I wonder why? Even if they spoke up and lost their job, they would have a book deal and a job as a medical correspondent on CNN within five minutes. Yet they still don't speak. There must be a reason. Hint: we also know that the CDC is an incompetent organization--they were literally unable to follow their own instructions to make the test properly, and lost three weeks in the process.

 

all deaths should have been or at least by now, tested for virus...

 

Obviously. But is that a Trump decision or a CDC decision?

 

Hey, what do you know, experts now FINALLY admitting Coronavirus was in the United States much, much earlier than initially reported......DUH!!! Considering the size of the outbreak in Wuhan, and all of the travel between Hubie Province and the US, this validates exactly what I have been saying for 2 months now.

Autopsies reveal first confirmed U.S. coronavirus deaths occurred in Bay Area in February

 

The legal liability for companies may guide their safe workplace protocols...T stated companies have some immunity to liability and some legal experts suggest this is not true.

 

Does the CDC have the legal authority to order German test kits or is it the Presidents decision and authority? Good question.

 

Of course the CDC has the legal authority to order test kits from other countries. Sharing samples and test kits is not that unusual. I'm sure there are very specific shipping instructions, just like with highly hazardous chemicals. But there is no way that the CDC has to get presidential approval every time they want to get something from another country's disease control experts. The Germans sent their test kits to Taiwan on Jan. 11 without any presidential approvals. Why would it be any different here?

 

This linked article suggests FDA and CDC regs disallowed private outsourced tests...It appears the President eventually pressured the FDA and CDC to waive conflicting regs to allow outsourced test kits. Could the president have amended the regs sooner, yes...Was he getting the best advice on outsourced test kits, the end of Jan-first of Feb?
How the government delayed coronavirus testing - CNNPolitics

 

You're already wrong on this - so go ahead and admit it. This is NOT like the flu. The April death toll alone, with a week to go, is equal to an entire typical flu season. And that's WITH draconian shutdowns and social distancing to limit the spread.

Yes, there are lots of un-diagnosed cases out there. But that doesn't magically turn this into "flu like". The death rate is easily an order of magnitude higher, and the R0 is significantly higher as well.

 

Still tainted

 

The shots he has called so far are that he isn't responsible, he isn't a shipping clerk, and the governors need to get their acts together on testing.

 

I get all that...but all these doctors did not unilaterally decide overnight at the same time to do this. My understanding was the determination in NY was to lump unknown COD into the pile. This the 4k jump the other day. Doctors had determined pneumonia as the COD but that determination was changed.

 

Maybe the president of Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria?