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This article does not mention the WHO offered tests to the US before the CDC decided it should make its own[1]. This alone should have been enough to bring impe

This article does not mention the WHO offered tests to the US before the CDC decided it should make its own[1]. This alone should have been enough to bring impeachment charges against public officials, for criminal neglect. If the WHO had proven these in China, and you have no other alternative, it make sense to do both 1. buy tests you know are in active use and 2. make your own tests if needed. Someone at the CDC must have been asleep or was ignored. China was shut down for weeks, the port of LA didnt have 25% of its normal volume in February and the WHO was shipping tests to over 60 countries _at the end of February_. EDIT#1: I also emailed Dr Fauci a full week before about the short sightedness of allowing cruise ships to continue operating and while he was claiming "if you are healthy, they are fine". His office returned my mail a few days ago with a blanket "Dr Fauci is busy, and appreciates your comments" email. EDIT#2: There is a more nuanced version of this discussion in the comments below. It is technically not correct to say the "WHO offered the US tests", the more technical distinction would be the "WHO supported leading research from Berlin, and the CDC did not. This decision lead to a delay in tests that did not have a higher number of false positives... (etc). The US generally has resources to produce these tests, and would not rely on the WHO." Either way, a test existed and the US could have chosen to take a more conservative stance by adopting the research and producing its own simulatneously. The Chinese economy was shutdown. [1] https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/06/coronavirus-testing-failure-123166 https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/06/coronavirus-testing...

Svip 7y ago
To clarify. The WHO did not offer the US tests. The Politico article just says that the US was not on the list of countries it offered tests. It never offers the US tests, because it has national labs that can make their own tests. The WHO only gives tests to countries who do not have a national infrastructure of their own to build tests. But the WHO did recommend the Berlin tests, as it had no false positives, and was quickly able to isolate the virus from other coronaviruses, something the initial CDC test was not able to. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/16/joe-biden/biden-falsely-says-trump-administration-rejected-w/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/16/joe-biden/...
- fabian2k 7y ago
  Just as additional information for anyone interested, this is the paper about the development of the test distributed by the WHO: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6988269/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6988269/ This was published on January 23, and it contains all the information you need to establish this kind of test in your own lab. And while I'm not an expert in this area, the controls done to ensure avoiding false positives based on other viruses seem pretty thorough to me. And this validation is the part that I would suspect to be one of the more time-consuming and important aspects.
throwaway122378 7y ago
What’s your point? The WHO lost all credibility. As late as January 14, 2020 the WHO tweeted that there is NO evidence of human to human transmission of covid-19 https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1217043229427761152?s=20 https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1217043229427761152?s=20
- omgJustTest 7y ago
  "Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China," - WHO. Sounds like these were preliminary results, which would have been well rectified by February. Wuhan was under quarantine Jan 23. There is a substantial difference in being wrong a month or so after a new virus is discovered, and being wrong after a country has been shutdown for nearly a month. EDIT: Updated for correct date Jan 23, not Jan 29, of Wuhan shutdown.
  - malandrew 7y ago
    Wuhan was under quarantine on Jan 23rd.
    - Lldjjxnn 7y ago
      Precisely. I don't understand why the WHO would put out such information with reckless disregard of current events.
- eyegor 7y ago
  I'm guessing based on the other reply that you corrected the date. But how does WHO repeating a statement from Chinese authorities (attributed in the tweet) have anything to do with the WHO's credibility?
  - pilsetnieks 7y ago
    Nothing. "The WHO has lost all credibility" is a line that was parroted in every troll comment in February and early March; I guess this one hasn't yet gotten the memo, or maybe it's a bystander that's bought into it.
hinkley 7y ago
Perhaps the most responsible thing to do is to buy the existing tests, start immediately making your own, and then offer the tests to others the moment supply exceeds demand. You get to save people first, and save face later.
kiba 7y ago
Can we stop threatening criminal negligence charge for every single mistakes people make? It's not going to improve performance in the next pandemic if people are afraid of doing their job or engages in ass covering.
- Aeolun 7y ago
  Accepting any kind of help in a crisis seems reasonable.
- omgJustTest 7y ago
  This logic is healthy, however limited here. We had an infectious disease team consulting the president, it was removed. We had a CDC with 6-8bn dollars more funding when Trump took office. We have a president claiming currently that "the cure cannot be worse than the disease"... these are not a hypothetical threat and have direct and immediate consequences in the next months.
  - Lldjjxnn 7y ago
    I thought the CDC funding cut didn't pass?
- H8crilA 7y ago
  Uhm, yes, skin in the game? Things generally don't improve because people get better. Things generally improve because bad people/groups/corporations/ideas fail. Way more people should be fired / tried / impeached. Need I remind you that nobody went to jail over 2008? It does make the system more healthy. If you're responsible for the health of some country you better be scared, because the consequences are dire, and your decisions are of utmost importance. I want that person to be on constant lookout for problems, bordering on desperation.
  - kiba 7y ago
    Things generally don't improve because people get better. Things generally improve because bad people/groups/corporations/ideas fail. Things improve when we endeavor to make things better and test our ideas and willingness to learn from mistakes, especially so if we prioritize pandemic preparation. Punishing people for their mistakes lead to people hiding their mistakes, not trying their damn hardest not to make a mistake, especially since mistakes are probably inevitable in a complex and evolving situation like a potential pandemic.

Svip 7y ago

To clarify. The WHO did not offer the US tests. The Politico article just says that the US was not on the list of countries it offered tests. It never offers the US tests, because it has national labs that can make their own tests. The WHO only gives tests to countries who do not have a national infrastructure of their own to build tests. But the WHO did recommend the Berlin tests, as it had no false positives, and was quickly able to isolate the virus from other coronaviruses, something the initial CDC test was not able to. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/16/joe-biden/biden-falsely-says-trump-administration-rejected-w/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/16/joe-biden/...

fabian2k 7y ago
Just as additional information for anyone interested, this is the paper about the development of the test distributed by the WHO: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6988269/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6988269/ This was published on January 23, and it contains all the information you need to establish this kind of test in your own lab. And while I'm not an expert in this area, the controls done to ensure avoiding false positives based on other viruses seem pretty thorough to me. And this validation is the part that I would suspect to be one of the more time-consuming and important aspects.

throwaway122378 7y ago

What’s your point? The WHO lost all credibility. As late as January 14, 2020 the WHO tweeted that there is NO evidence of human to human transmission of covid-19 https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1217043229427761152?s=20 https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1217043229427761152?s=20

omgJustTest 7y ago
"Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China," - WHO. Sounds like these were preliminary results, which would have been well rectified by February. Wuhan was under quarantine Jan 23. There is a substantial difference in being wrong a month or so after a new virus is discovered, and being wrong after a country has been shutdown for nearly a month. EDIT: Updated for correct date Jan 23, not Jan 29, of Wuhan shutdown.
- malandrew 7y ago
  Wuhan was under quarantine on Jan 23rd.
  - Lldjjxnn 7y ago
    Precisely. I don't understand why the WHO would put out such information with reckless disregard of current events.
eyegor 7y ago
I'm guessing based on the other reply that you corrected the date. But how does WHO repeating a statement from Chinese authorities (attributed in the tweet) have anything to do with the WHO's credibility?
- pilsetnieks 7y ago
  Nothing. "The WHO has lost all credibility" is a line that was parroted in every troll comment in February and early March; I guess this one hasn't yet gotten the memo, or maybe it's a bystander that's bought into it.

hinkley 7y ago

Perhaps the most responsible thing to do is to buy the existing tests, start immediately making your own, and then offer the tests to others the moment supply exceeds demand. You get to save people first, and save face later.

kiba 7y ago

Can we stop threatening criminal negligence charge for every single mistakes people make? It's not going to improve performance in the next pandemic if people are afraid of doing their job or engages in ass covering.

Aeolun 7y ago
Accepting any kind of help in a crisis seems reasonable.
omgJustTest 7y ago
This logic is healthy, however limited here. We had an infectious disease team consulting the president, it was removed. We had a CDC with 6-8bn dollars more funding when Trump took office. We have a president claiming currently that "the cure cannot be worse than the disease"... these are not a hypothetical threat and have direct and immediate consequences in the next months.
- Lldjjxnn 7y ago
  I thought the CDC funding cut didn't pass?
H8crilA 7y ago
Uhm, yes, skin in the game? Things generally don't improve because people get better. Things generally improve because bad people/groups/corporations/ideas fail. Way more people should be fired / tried / impeached. Need I remind you that nobody went to jail over 2008? It does make the system more healthy. If you're responsible for the health of some country you better be scared, because the consequences are dire, and your decisions are of utmost importance. I want that person to be on constant lookout for problems, bordering on desperation.
- kiba 7y ago
  Things generally don't improve because people get better. Things generally improve because bad people/groups/corporations/ideas fail. Things improve when we endeavor to make things better and test our ideas and willingness to learn from mistakes, especially so if we prioritize pandemic preparation. Punishing people for their mistakes lead to people hiding their mistakes, not trying their damn hardest not to make a mistake, especially since mistakes are probably inevitable in a complex and evolving situation like a potential pandemic.