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The secret U.S. stockpile meant to save us all in a bioterror attack
- v4dok 7y agoWhy do we still have paywalled articles on the first page?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- ryanlol 7y agoWhy not? Presumably the vast majority of HN readers can easily afford to pay for the news. I didn’t even need to sign in to my wapo account to read this article, so presumably you’ve just hit some quota.
- dwighttk 7y agoI find it irritating that Washington Post removes the url and replaces it with their homepage so that I have to go back and find the url and open it in a private tab.
- 34679 7y agoYou can open it in a private tab.
- dukoid 7y agoI think I'd switch to the browser that allows a per-site setting "always open in a private tab"
- hombre_fatal 7y agoI don't want to limit the news and what we discuss here to news outlets funded by advertisements and charity. I also want professional outlets that produce content that at least some people consider worth paying for.
- ineedasername 7y agoBecause sometimes paid content is interesting to a lot of people on HN.
- 34679 7y agoThere were stockpiles of supplies in Puerto Rico, too, but that didn't mean it was successfully distributed to the people who needed it.[1] Is there a secret plan for disbursing this stockpile to 300+ million Americans? If so, why wasn't that plan utilized in PR? [1]https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/puerto-rico-fires-emergency-director-after-finding-warehouse-full-of-wasted-hurricane-maria-aid https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/puerto-rico-fires-em...
- zappo2938 7y agoWho was in charge at the time delegating responsibility?
- 34679 7y agoAt the federal level, republicans, and at the local level, democrats. There's plenty of blame to go around without being partisan.
- mwilliaams 7y agoAid was delivered to the island. Local officials failed to distribute it, apparently willfully. Abandoned/hidden aid is still being discovered in warehouses and other locations [1]. [1] https://www.npr.org/2020/01/20/797996503/political-unrest-in-puerto-rico-after-discovery-of-unused-hurricane-aid https://www.npr.org/2020/01/20/797996503/political-unrest-in...
- skinnymuch 7y agoThat’s insane. Do you know the reasoning for wastefully leaving supplies to rot? Is it laziness? It’s one thing to keep supplies or money for yourself. But this isn’t the case here.
- mwilliaams 7y agoI have heard speculation that it was to make the federal government look bad. Or perhaps the local government benefits from maintaining a crisis situation. I’m not Puerto Rican.
- CameronBanga 7y agoThis story is really interesting to me. Clearly, it’s to give people a sense of security and calmness given a potential virus outbreak. But also feels like government PR to other governments, with a message of “If you’re trying something, watch yourself.” Not trying to insinuate propaganda or elevate conspiracy. But anyone with a security background or who worked in disaster preparedness have any insight as to why an article like this would basically reveal a bunch about our national security? Seems to break most of my understood “Rules of Operational Security”.
- whatshisface 7y agoEveryone knows where the fire stations are. Civilian protection isn't usually secret. What's secret is the US bioweapons program.
- lez 7y agoAgree. While the government keeps citizens safe on one side, it is also actively involved in unlawful act of weaponizing pathogens. The first article in this magazine about mycoplasma gives us a briefing on this topic: http://www.betterhealthguy.com/images/stories/PDF/PHA/2009_07.pdf http://www.betterhealthguy.com/images/stories/PDF/PHA/2009_0...
- _jal 7y agoThe obvious answer is that the details disclosed are not considered operationally sensitive. The more interesting question would be why these and not other details that weren't, but you obviously won't get answers to that. A second answer is that, in situations like we currently face (balanced on a hope that a global outbreak doesn't get worse), PR is to some extent security. If you're confronted with a frightened dog, make soothing noises.
- teesnee 7y ago> Dr. Strangelove: Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost, if you keep it a secret! Why didn't you tell the world, eh? > Ambassador de Sadesky: It was to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday. As you know, the Premier loves surprises. --------------------------- An adversary can only be deterred by what they know. Publicizing stockpiled healthcare supplies informs adversaries that a chemical or biological attack would be less successful, reducing such an attack's likelihood.
- chatmasta 7y agoNote the article is from April 2018.
- godelmachine 7y agoWould someone please post the paywall bypass link? Edit - https://outline.com/KDNvtL https://outline.com/KDNvtL
- SubiculumCode 7y agoUblock, select block Java script, reload.
- reaperducer 7y agoThere are lots of government emergency stockpiles around the country. Some secret. Some not. If you go to Grand Canyon Caverns, just east of the Hualapai reservation, and take the tour, you can see the old stockpile from the 1940's. According to the tour guide, in the last five or ten years, the government has started adding to it again.
- vanniv 7y agoColor me shocked that an article that's supposed to be about some topic manages to find a way to convert itself into another "Trump Bad" story halfway through. Is WaPo actually capable of writing an article that doesn't have a "Trump Bad" angle?
- belltaco 7y agoThe article had specific criticisms about the actions of a new administration. Do you have any specific issues with those criticisms or do you think administrations should be immune from criticism? Every new admin has it's own priorities.
- vanniv 7y agoThe entire analysis starts from the assumption that any administration goal is inherently either a fabrication or misguided. "efficiencies" is clearly just code word for destroying all things good, obviously, and totally not worth even considering whether there is any meaning to the idea. I mean, if Trump wants it, it must be bad amirite? Occasionally, they quote folks, like Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University in support of Trump. But every time, they carefully treat the quote and the person as obviously either stupid or corrupted, surrounding the quote with statements like "But critics say it will allow biotech companies to lobby for more of their specialized, and often more expensive, drugs to be included[...]" Direct quote from an expert, treated as obviously worthless, followed by a weasel-words "some critics" which is treated as the clearly superior refutation of the idea from the actual knowledgeable person. It's almost like they started with a narrative of "Trump is trying to kill us all by destroying our disease preparedness" and then sat down to write an article that looked like journalism but actually just told that story.
- belltaco 7y agoTrump's budget proposals always include big cuts to CDC's budget. After recent criticism of this, the administration said it is just a negotiation opening tactic. i.e Basically, "Hey democrats, if you want more funds to fight pandemics to stop us all from dying, you gotta give us something else, like even bigger increases to the military budget and Space Force, or even more tax cuts to companies". There used to be a pandemic specialist on the National Security Council, that position has been cut. Not to mention other positions. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/ Can you address these facts from Trump's perspective instead of just taking cheap shots at the media?
- morninglight 7y agoDemocracy dies at paywalls.