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I really hope we (the US) conducts a thorough and credible investigation as to who is responsible for this failure to prepare for this crisis. I don't see how

by kiba 7y ago

I really hope we (the US) conducts a thorough and credible investigation as to who is responsible for this failure to prepare for this crisis. I don't see how blaming x and y will fix anything but boot out the current bureaucrats. The next time a pandemic happens, the guys who remembered anything in living memory are already dead or retired. Worse, punishing people when they don't understand or making honest mistakes are going to lead to hiding of their mistakes or incentive not to understand anything. but I thought the CDC was one of the few government agencies that had its shit together. Apparently they couldn't even be bothered to keep a reasonably stocked reserve of masks and ventilators It's hard to keep a reserve of masks and ventilators when the higher ups don't think your mission is particularly important and you don't have a budget. Ventilators and masks costs money to store, maintain, and test. The better solution is to prioritize pandemic preparation and war game pandemic scenario, and conduct an honest investigation to prepare for the future, rather than punish people.

throwaway894345 7y ago
We have accountability for every other executive. Why do top brass at CDC get to plead ignorance? Maybe to your point the CDC or Congress really is just one guy working out of his Atlanta garage and it is too much to ask of him to maintain a stockpile of basic supplies for the most likely disaster scenario (you know, those respiratory disease outbreaks that we've seen 3 of in the last 2 decades). If this is what the investigation finds and this guy really did everything he could with the budget he had, then let's name and shame the politicians who gave him that budget. Like I previously mentioned, I don't doubt that congress didn't give the CDC a stellar budget, but I have a hard time believing that they spent their resources on better things than masks and ventilators (no, not based on hindsight, but based on the pattern of respiratory disease outbreaks) and that they couldn't even afford to plan to secure supply chains. That's like one analyst's job for several months. But again, maybe I'm wrong and the fault lies squarely with Congress or one or several administrations--those politicians still deserve to be tarred and feathered (again, accountability is a real thing). In any case, we won't know without an investigation. > conduct an honest investigation to prepare for the future, rather than punish people. Nope. "Accountability" is preparing for the future. Without it those in charge will just ignore those best laid plans because they're too expensive and there's no cost to ignoring them. If you drive drunk and kill someone, you go to jail. If you are in charge of a federal agency and you don't do your basic due diligence and your glaring fuck-up kills thousands of people, we shouldn't laugh it off.

by kiba 7y ago

throwaway894345 7y ago

We have accountability for every other executive. Why do top brass at CDC get to plead ignorance? Maybe to your point the CDC or Congress really is just one guy working out of his Atlanta garage and it is too much to ask of him to maintain a stockpile of basic supplies for the most likely disaster scenario (you know, those respiratory disease outbreaks that we've seen 3 of in the last 2 decades). If this is what the investigation finds and this guy really did everything he could with the budget he had, then let's name and shame the politicians who gave him that budget. Like I previously mentioned, I don't doubt that congress didn't give the CDC a stellar budget, but I have a hard time believing that they spent their resources on better things than masks and ventilators (no, not based on hindsight, but based on the pattern of respiratory disease outbreaks) and that they couldn't even afford to plan to secure supply chains. That's like one analyst's job for several months. But again, maybe I'm wrong and the fault lies squarely with Congress or one or several administrations--those politicians still deserve to be tarred and feathered (again, accountability is a real thing). In any case, we won't know without an investigation. > conduct an honest investigation to prepare for the future, rather than punish people. Nope. "Accountability" is preparing for the future. Without it those in charge will just ignore those best laid plans because they're too expensive and there's no cost to ignoring them. If you drive drunk and kill someone, you go to jail. If you are in charge of a federal agency and you don't do your basic due diligence and your glaring fuck-up kills thousands of people, we shouldn't laugh it off.