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White House told federal health agency to classify coronavirus deliberations

43 points by aazaa 7y ago

rp00 7y ago
Fuckers
- _eht 7y ago
  Outstanding rhetoric!
metalliqaz 7y ago
The smallest consolation during the insanity of the Trump presidency is that it obvious that Trump and his goons have lived every second of it in fear.
hurricanetc 7y ago
I don’t understand the motivation. Lying and pretending is just going to make the situation worse and push the reckoning to a later date. Given that it is an election year it seems to me that punting this out is a really stupid idea for the incumbent administration. Maybe they are just hoping that if they lie and withhold information long enough it will just disappear over summer? Seems like a really silly gamble with a huge potential downside and nearly nonexistent upside.
- themagician 7y ago
  If you sufficiently limit testing then the numbers will always be within your control. Without a treatment or vaccine there is no point in testing. It will just cause panic. The US isn’t like other countries where people go to the doctor when they get sick. If people think they just have the flu they will just stay home and die instead of putting a strain on resources. A morbid reality, but the best solution for the system we have. Transparency and testing won’t be good for anyone. What works everywhere else doesn’t always work in the US.
  - sliken 7y ago
    No point in testing? How can you make any decisions for public safety without numbers? Numerous options like pushing jobs and schools to go virtual, cancelling sports events, conferences, etc. Even to the point of blocking roads and air travel. It's 10x worse if everyone gets sick at the same time, so slowing the spread is quite valuable... even if the same number of people get sick. Not to mention various treatments are being tested. Gilead has a promising drug, and it looks like an old malaria drug might be just what is needed. Lots of promising results in petri dishes, none from a good double blind study... yet. A delay of a month or two might well halve the death rate, even ignoring things like over burdened hospitals.
    - themagician 7y ago
      Think for a second. You can’t close schools in the US. There is no safety net for people to not go to work. No job, no healthcare at all. Panic only makes it worse. The sad reality is the best option we have at the moment is for people to pretend like nothing is wrong. Everyone gets to keep their job, income and health insurance for as long as possible. If you get sick, stay home. If you get really sick weigh the cost of going to the doctor against death. In much of the US many people will opt to just die at home instead of seek medical care. As a result, the system actually won’t get overloaded. If people panic and start showing up at the ER it will though.
      - dariusj18 7y ago
        People who are high risk or are adjacent to high risk individuals (maybe everyone?) cannot take those chances. The panic from lack of information can be just as bad as the panic from being informed.
      - otterley 7y ago
        > You can’t close schools in the US. I don't know what you mean by this - we've had "snow days" for a very long time.
        7y ago
- dr-detroit 7y ago
  Theres a big election coming up and the guy with the most to loose happens to be the one owned by special interests who wants to get the poors back to being uninsured.
- dariusj18 7y ago
  Hrm, lie and obscure in the hopes that it will just go away. Sounds like a playbook we have seen used successfully many times so far.
nine_zeros 7y ago
This administration is the most crooked set of losers ever. From day 1, they've only divided and destroyed effective governance and shredded effective people from the government. What are they going to do now? Let people die just to keep the economic illusion running or let people live with actual infection numbers and crash the stock market?
- foxyv 7y ago
  > What are they going to do now? Let people die just to keep the economic illusion running or let people live with actual infection numbers and crash the stock market? Most likely, yes. They will prevent the public from seeing the extent of the problem until after thousands of people die they will use their media resources to blame someone else.
slowmovintarget 7y ago
> HHS has SCIFs because theoretically it would play a major role in biowarfare or chemical attacks. Maybe public health isn't the only thing being discussed in these meetings?
eddyg 7y ago
[Dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607
jrs235 7y ago
dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607
tareqak 7y ago
Possible duplicate of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607 . I can’t tell which one was posted first.
jhayward 7y ago
The "simplest" explanation would be that they were discussing the outbreak in China and using secret intelligence gathered by classified sources or processes to do so. Even so, it would still be stupid to let those limited discussions be where policy was made.

43 points by aazaa 7y ago

rp00 7y ago

Fuckers

_eht 7y ago
Outstanding rhetoric!

metalliqaz 7y ago

The smallest consolation during the insanity of the Trump presidency is that it obvious that Trump and his goons have lived every second of it in fear.

hurricanetc 7y ago

I don’t understand the motivation. Lying and pretending is just going to make the situation worse and push the reckoning to a later date. Given that it is an election year it seems to me that punting this out is a really stupid idea for the incumbent administration. Maybe they are just hoping that if they lie and withhold information long enough it will just disappear over summer? Seems like a really silly gamble with a huge potential downside and nearly nonexistent upside.

themagician 7y ago
If you sufficiently limit testing then the numbers will always be within your control. Without a treatment or vaccine there is no point in testing. It will just cause panic. The US isn’t like other countries where people go to the doctor when they get sick. If people think they just have the flu they will just stay home and die instead of putting a strain on resources. A morbid reality, but the best solution for the system we have. Transparency and testing won’t be good for anyone. What works everywhere else doesn’t always work in the US.
- sliken 7y ago
  No point in testing? How can you make any decisions for public safety without numbers? Numerous options like pushing jobs and schools to go virtual, cancelling sports events, conferences, etc. Even to the point of blocking roads and air travel. It's 10x worse if everyone gets sick at the same time, so slowing the spread is quite valuable... even if the same number of people get sick. Not to mention various treatments are being tested. Gilead has a promising drug, and it looks like an old malaria drug might be just what is needed. Lots of promising results in petri dishes, none from a good double blind study... yet. A delay of a month or two might well halve the death rate, even ignoring things like over burdened hospitals.
  - themagician 7y ago
    Think for a second. You can’t close schools in the US. There is no safety net for people to not go to work. No job, no healthcare at all. Panic only makes it worse. The sad reality is the best option we have at the moment is for people to pretend like nothing is wrong. Everyone gets to keep their job, income and health insurance for as long as possible. If you get sick, stay home. If you get really sick weigh the cost of going to the doctor against death. In much of the US many people will opt to just die at home instead of seek medical care. As a result, the system actually won’t get overloaded. If people panic and start showing up at the ER it will though.
    - dariusj18 7y ago
      People who are high risk or are adjacent to high risk individuals (maybe everyone?) cannot take those chances. The panic from lack of information can be just as bad as the panic from being informed.
    - otterley 7y ago
      > You can’t close schools in the US. I don't know what you mean by this - we've had "snow days" for a very long time.
      - 7y ago
dr-detroit 7y ago
Theres a big election coming up and the guy with the most to loose happens to be the one owned by special interests who wants to get the poors back to being uninsured.
dariusj18 7y ago
Hrm, lie and obscure in the hopes that it will just go away. Sounds like a playbook we have seen used successfully many times so far.

nine_zeros 7y ago

This administration is the most crooked set of losers ever. From day 1, they've only divided and destroyed effective governance and shredded effective people from the government. What are they going to do now? Let people die just to keep the economic illusion running or let people live with actual infection numbers and crash the stock market?

foxyv 7y ago
> What are they going to do now? Let people die just to keep the economic illusion running or let people live with actual infection numbers and crash the stock market? Most likely, yes. They will prevent the public from seeing the extent of the problem until after thousands of people die they will use their media resources to blame someone else.

slowmovintarget 7y ago

> HHS has SCIFs because theoretically it would play a major role in biowarfare or chemical attacks. Maybe public health isn't the only thing being discussed in these meetings?

eddyg 7y ago

[Dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607

jrs235 7y ago

dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607

tareqak 7y ago

Possible duplicate of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607 . I can’t tell which one was posted first.

jhayward 7y ago

The "simplest" explanation would be that they were discussing the outbreak in China and using secret intelligence gathered by classified sources or processes to do so. Even so, it would still be stupid to let those limited discussions be where policy was made.