5 ms·

CDC has there shortcomings, no doubt but let’s not forget who’s truly to blame for the mess we’re in now. The trump administration’s disbandment of federal inst

CDC has there shortcomings, no doubt but let’s not forget who’s truly to blame for the mess we’re in now. The trump administration’s disbandment of federal institutions created to combat this and the ongoing denial of a serious problem have led to a collapsing economy and isolation of millions. Good article here for sure but let’s not pass the blame to the CDC. We know who to blame...

tathougies 7y ago
Evidence? CDC has more funding than ever. And it's a myth trump got rid of the pandemic team at NSC. They just renamed it the bioterrorism team after people left. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/17/instagram-posts/celebrities-are-sharing-misleading-post-about-trum/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/17/instagram-... https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/12/joy-behar/view-co-host-wrongly-says-trump-shut-down-37-globa/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/12/joy-behar/...
- CriticalCathed 7y ago
  You are spreading misinformation yourself. Even your own link doesn't support exactly what you just said. "Renaming" is not what happened. Your link: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/17/instagram-posts/celebrities-are-sharing-misleading-post-about-trum/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/17/instagram-...
  - tathougies 7y ago
    > After Ziemer’s departure, the global health team was reorganized as part of an effort by then-National Security Adviser John Bolton From https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/dems-misconstrue-trump-budget-remarks/ https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/dems-misconstrue-trump-bud... > Morrison objected to claims that the office was “dissolved,” writing in the Post on March 16 that the administration “create[d] the counterproliferation and biodefense directorate, which was the result of consolidating three directorates into one, given the obvious overlap between arms control and nonproliferation, weapons of mass destruction terrorism, and global health and biodefense. It is this reorganization that critics have misconstrued or intentionally misrepresented.”
    - TSiege 7y ago
      Why on earth would anyone believe a Trump Appointee on what happened. The administration has proven themselves time and time again to lie through their teeth. And it sure seems to me that Arms Control, Weapons of Mass Destruction don't have that much in common with Global Health. And if it did, where is that agency right now during this crisis?
- sigmar 7y ago
  CDC budget for FY '18 was lower than FY '17. Source: https://www.hhs.gov/about/budget/fy2018/budget-in-brief/cdc/index.html https://www.hhs.gov/about/budget/fy2018/budget-in-brief/cdc/...
  - tathougies 7y ago
    Maybe you should try contacting politifact with the correction? I dont disagree with your source obviously but several major fact checking websites are reporting the opposite.
    - grogenaut 7y ago
      You were the one misled, maybe you should contact them.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - tathougies 7y ago
      Still according to factcheck.org, with links to contemporaneous news articles indicates that all trump admin budgets are higher than the last obama one (fy17). Doing some more analysis it seem that the figures you posted include emergency funding the cdc received for things like zika. These are not part of the standard budget. For example in fy16, they include retained funds for swine flu which expired. If you remove these you as the trends reported in the news.
- jayd16 7y ago
  In both links the Trump administration tried to cut the funding but Congress funded it anyway. Can't say that instills confidence in health leadership. That said, calling the situation a hoax was beyond redemption.
  - tathougies 7y ago
    Read the politifact. Trump said the accusations he hasn't responded are a hoax like the impeachment accusations. He never said covid was a hoax. Not sure why everyone keeps saying this. Its quite clear from his speech.
    - jayd16 7y ago
      In the same speech he compared the projected fatalities to that of the common flu and said the press was in "hysteria mode." The message was very clearly from Trump. There's nothing to worry about. He downplayed the threat and called the alarm bells a political hoax. That is the same thing as calling the threat a hoax even if he never denied the existence of the virus. A week later it was a national emergency.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
throwaway32120 7y ago
One of the problems with the hyperpartisanship in America is that it prevents people from acknowledging leadership problems that both parties share. Though I think that Trump has done an incredibly poor job of handling this crisis, there's little evidence that other leaders - in Congress, at the state level, in the media, etc. - have done any better. Of course all our leaders will want to blame other people right now - failure is an orphan, as the saying goes. I just did a search for news articles from the end of January to the end of February, and only found articles like this one[1], where politicians are criticizing the Trump administration's communication, but aren't callng for stronger efforts or mass mobilization (and the article has a quote from Pelosi saying she has confidence in how the CDC is handling things). Congress wasn't passing legislation to fight the pandemic as things were heating up, and governors don't seem to have made effective plans. The media didn't consider it to be a major disaster until recently (it didn't get brought up in the presidential debates until a couple weeks ago, IIRC). Issues like our lack of emergency stores for things like masks and our lack of an ability to manufacture them here is an issue that goes back for years, as is the poor safety net that leaves Americans so vulnerable in times like this. Hopefully this crisis will encourage people to look at the poor leadership America has had across the board. Simply getting rid of Trump and calling it a day is just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/02/05/some-lawmakers-confront-trump-administration-over-coronavirus-response/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/02/05/some-law...
- jayd16 7y ago
  This is a failure of the executive branch. Congress did its job long ago. The executive branch already had the legal means it needed but the administration chose to abdicate its responsibility.
  - throwaway32120 7y ago
    Do you have evidence that other politicians would have handled things significantly differently? As I said, the articles I found from the beginning of the crisis don't demonstrate that. Have you found any articles from, say, the beginning of February where politicians are calling for a much more robust response? The legislative branch certainly has the ability to act when they don't think the executive branch is up to the task (they actually were embroiled with a political battle with Trump at the start of this, but it was about impeachment). Getting rid of Trump and replacing him with someone who would have handled this much better is great. Replacing Trump with someone who would have handled things about as well, keeping all the other political leaders who dropped the ball on this, and not changing the deep structural issues that have made things worse, will do little to help.
gfodor 7y ago
This thought might comfort you, but if the only lesson we learn from this is “because Trump”, the next pandemic will be just as bad. Our regulatory agencies, our culture, our economic systems, all deserve consideration in the post mortem.
dang 7y ago
Please do not take HN threads into partisan flamewar. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

tathougies 7y ago

Evidence? CDC has more funding than ever. And it's a myth trump got rid of the pandemic team at NSC. They just renamed it the bioterrorism team after people left. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/17/instagram-posts/celebrities-are-sharing-misleading-post-about-trum/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/17/instagram-... https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/12/joy-behar/view-co-host-wrongly-says-trump-shut-down-37-globa/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/12/joy-behar/...

CriticalCathed 7y ago
You are spreading misinformation yourself. Even your own link doesn't support exactly what you just said. "Renaming" is not what happened. Your link: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/17/instagram-posts/celebrities-are-sharing-misleading-post-about-trum/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/17/instagram-...
- tathougies 7y ago
  > After Ziemer’s departure, the global health team was reorganized as part of an effort by then-National Security Adviser John Bolton From https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/dems-misconstrue-trump-budget-remarks/ https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/dems-misconstrue-trump-bud... > Morrison objected to claims that the office was “dissolved,” writing in the Post on March 16 that the administration “create[d] the counterproliferation and biodefense directorate, which was the result of consolidating three directorates into one, given the obvious overlap between arms control and nonproliferation, weapons of mass destruction terrorism, and global health and biodefense. It is this reorganization that critics have misconstrued or intentionally misrepresented.”
  - TSiege 7y ago
    Why on earth would anyone believe a Trump Appointee on what happened. The administration has proven themselves time and time again to lie through their teeth. And it sure seems to me that Arms Control, Weapons of Mass Destruction don't have that much in common with Global Health. And if it did, where is that agency right now during this crisis?
sigmar 7y ago
CDC budget for FY '18 was lower than FY '17. Source: https://www.hhs.gov/about/budget/fy2018/budget-in-brief/cdc/index.html https://www.hhs.gov/about/budget/fy2018/budget-in-brief/cdc/...
- tathougies 7y ago
  Maybe you should try contacting politifact with the correction? I dont disagree with your source obviously but several major fact checking websites are reporting the opposite.
  - grogenaut 7y ago
    You were the one misled, maybe you should contact them.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - tathougies 7y ago
    Still according to factcheck.org, with links to contemporaneous news articles indicates that all trump admin budgets are higher than the last obama one (fy17). Doing some more analysis it seem that the figures you posted include emergency funding the cdc received for things like zika. These are not part of the standard budget. For example in fy16, they include retained funds for swine flu which expired. If you remove these you as the trends reported in the news.
jayd16 7y ago
In both links the Trump administration tried to cut the funding but Congress funded it anyway. Can't say that instills confidence in health leadership. That said, calling the situation a hoax was beyond redemption.
- tathougies 7y ago
  Read the politifact. Trump said the accusations he hasn't responded are a hoax like the impeachment accusations. He never said covid was a hoax. Not sure why everyone keeps saying this. Its quite clear from his speech.
  - jayd16 7y ago
    In the same speech he compared the projected fatalities to that of the common flu and said the press was in "hysteria mode." The message was very clearly from Trump. There's nothing to worry about. He downplayed the threat and called the alarm bells a political hoax. That is the same thing as calling the threat a hoax even if he never denied the existence of the virus. A week later it was a national emergency.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

throwaway32120 7y ago

One of the problems with the hyperpartisanship in America is that it prevents people from acknowledging leadership problems that both parties share. Though I think that Trump has done an incredibly poor job of handling this crisis, there's little evidence that other leaders - in Congress, at the state level, in the media, etc. - have done any better. Of course all our leaders will want to blame other people right now - failure is an orphan, as the saying goes. I just did a search for news articles from the end of January to the end of February, and only found articles like this one[1], where politicians are criticizing the Trump administration's communication, but aren't callng for stronger efforts or mass mobilization (and the article has a quote from Pelosi saying she has confidence in how the CDC is handling things). Congress wasn't passing legislation to fight the pandemic as things were heating up, and governors don't seem to have made effective plans. The media didn't consider it to be a major disaster until recently (it didn't get brought up in the presidential debates until a couple weeks ago, IIRC). Issues like our lack of emergency stores for things like masks and our lack of an ability to manufacture them here is an issue that goes back for years, as is the poor safety net that leaves Americans so vulnerable in times like this. Hopefully this crisis will encourage people to look at the poor leadership America has had across the board. Simply getting rid of Trump and calling it a day is just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/02/05/some-lawmakers-confront-trump-administration-over-coronavirus-response/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/02/05/some-law...

jayd16 7y ago
This is a failure of the executive branch. Congress did its job long ago. The executive branch already had the legal means it needed but the administration chose to abdicate its responsibility.
- throwaway32120 7y ago
  Do you have evidence that other politicians would have handled things significantly differently? As I said, the articles I found from the beginning of the crisis don't demonstrate that. Have you found any articles from, say, the beginning of February where politicians are calling for a much more robust response? The legislative branch certainly has the ability to act when they don't think the executive branch is up to the task (they actually were embroiled with a political battle with Trump at the start of this, but it was about impeachment). Getting rid of Trump and replacing him with someone who would have handled this much better is great. Replacing Trump with someone who would have handled things about as well, keeping all the other political leaders who dropped the ball on this, and not changing the deep structural issues that have made things worse, will do little to help.

gfodor 7y ago

This thought might comfort you, but if the only lesson we learn from this is “because Trump”, the next pandemic will be just as bad. Our regulatory agencies, our culture, our economic systems, all deserve consideration in the post mortem.

dang 7y ago

Please do not take HN threads into partisan flamewar. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html