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Really really hope people are paying attention to this. Suspect we're just sleepwalking into a disaster.

by ctoth 7y ago

smt88 7y ago
Literally tens of thousands of people (if not hundreds of thousands) are working on this outbreak. My friend works for the CDC in Atlanta, and the taskforce in that city alone is 1,500 people. They work 75 hrs/wk exclusively on this outbreak. The idea that the many thousands of people with jobs and doctorates in public health, epidemiology, and medicine would be sleepwalking while you (and I assume some other people) are more aware of the impending disaster is ludicrous.
- josh_fyi 7y ago
  The problem is not the professionals, who work hard, but those in control who may have other motives like short-term stock market performance.
- senordevnyc 7y ago
  Then why are we 8 weeks into this and the US has tested approximately no one, while other countries are testing thousands per day? Wtf are these 1500 people doing for 75 hours per week?
  - smt88 7y ago
    Each test kit has a limited number of uses[. The first batch of thousands of test kits had a flaw and couldn't be used[1]. With a limited number of kits, they had to limit testing to high-risk people. As I've written on HN before, a great deal of the problem is that the current administration appoints political donors and anti-government activists to important roles in agencies handling science and medicine. These are mid-level people whose names almost never end up in news. So you have incompetent decision makers appointed throughout the organization, funding cuts, discouragement of civil service at all (through things like killing debt forgiveness and stagnating wages), and an administration that publicly denies the problem is even serious because it's afraid of the stock market tanking. Add to that that the State Dept has been gutted and has many hundreds of open positions that the administration refuses to fill, and you have more disasters like allowing likely-infected Americans to return to the US without testing or quarantine. 1. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/health/coronavirus-testing-cdc.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/health/coronavirus-testin...
    - senordevnyc 7y ago
      Oh, i'm 100% on board with the fact that it's not the experts' fault. But it's also not at all fair to say "Thousands of people are working on this, so we can't be sleepwalking!" and that's what I was responding to. Thousands of people might be working on this, but if their work is being ignored or undermined, they might as well not be.
- viggity 7y ago
  I don't think the CDC is sleepwalking. I think the american public "iT's JuSt ThE fLu" is sleepwalking.

Really really hope people are paying attention to this. Suspect we're just sleepwalking into a disaster.

by ctoth 7y ago

Really really hope people are paying attention to this. Suspect we're just sleepwalking into a disaster.

Literally tens of thousands of people (if not hundreds of thousands) are working on this outbreak. My friend works for the CDC in Atlanta, and the taskforce in that city alone is 1,500 people. They work 75 hrs/wk exclusively on this outbreak. The idea that the many thousands of people with jobs and doctorates in public health, epidemiology, and medicine would be sleepwalking while you (and I assume some other people) are more aware of the impending disaster is ludicrous.

josh_fyi 7y ago
The problem is not the professionals, who work hard, but those in control who may have other motives like short-term stock market performance.
senordevnyc 7y ago
Then why are we 8 weeks into this and the US has tested approximately no one, while other countries are testing thousands per day? Wtf are these 1500 people doing for 75 hours per week?
- smt88 7y ago
  Each test kit has a limited number of uses[. The first batch of thousands of test kits had a flaw and couldn't be used[1]. With a limited number of kits, they had to limit testing to high-risk people. As I've written on HN before, a great deal of the problem is that the current administration appoints political donors and anti-government activists to important roles in agencies handling science and medicine. These are mid-level people whose names almost never end up in news. So you have incompetent decision makers appointed throughout the organization, funding cuts, discouragement of civil service at all (through things like killing debt forgiveness and stagnating wages), and an administration that publicly denies the problem is even serious because it's afraid of the stock market tanking. Add to that that the State Dept has been gutted and has many hundreds of open positions that the administration refuses to fill, and you have more disasters like allowing likely-infected Americans to return to the US without testing or quarantine. 1. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/health/coronavirus-testing-cdc.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/health/coronavirus-testin...
  - senordevnyc 7y ago
    Oh, i'm 100% on board with the fact that it's not the experts' fault. But it's also not at all fair to say "Thousands of people are working on this, so we can't be sleepwalking!" and that's what I was responding to. Thousands of people might be working on this, but if their work is being ignored or undermined, they might as well not be.
viggity 7y ago
I don't think the CDC is sleepwalking. I think the american public "iT's JuSt ThE fLu" is sleepwalking.