3 ms·

There's a tremendous amount of bureaucratic infighting and cluelessness in many countries just now (I'm in the UK). There have been debates for many years about

by sherr 7y ago

There's a tremendous amount of bureaucratic infighting and cluelessness in many countries just now (I'm in the UK). There have been debates for many years about streamlining the chain of command and responsibility in the USA; just think about the post-9/11 debates. I understand that the federal structure makes some things hard but it would seem to me that a proper central authority to manage a crisis like this would be very useful - but isn't this what FEMA is for? After the dust settles, some heads need to be bashed together.

netsharc 7y ago
I agree with the head bashing, sadly that probably won't happen. The incompetent will slap each others' backs saying "heckuva job!" and go home to their gold toilets..
specialist 7y ago
"There have been debates for many years about streamlining the chain of command and responsibility in the USA..." My takeaway from the 9/11 debacle is we learned that the Clinton Admin had a "shaking the tree" process. In response WTC bombing, USS Cole, embassy attacks, etc. There are always organizational problems. Reasons data isn't shared. Legal, turf, bureaucratic, inability to correlate with others, whatever. Their workaround was to have a daily standup where all the agency heads shared info. Bush Admin (eg Condi Rice) discontinued such nonsense, choosing to focus on Russia (ending bans on nuke testing, chemical weapons, missile defense). Trump Admin didn't choose to discontinue Obama Admin's preparedness so much as outright rejected anything and everything Obama related, and pandemic stuff was swept away with the rest.
shas3 7y ago
The incompetence of CDC and FDA is staggering. It is not hard to imagine an alternative reality where the CDC-FDA testing fiasco did not occur, there was some test-and-trace early in the epidemic, and the cost and extent of the shut-downs were lesser and far fewer deaths occurred. It is a bit dismaying to say this: but CDC and FDA have a lot of blood on their hands.
- rabidrat 7y ago
  Who installed the CDC leadership and gutted their budget? It's easy to foist the blame on some faceless TLA govt org without digging just one level deeper to figure out how the gross incompetence was able to manifest.
  - shas3 7y ago
    You'd be right, if CDC's Covid-19 response isn't a repeat of their initial incompetence during Ebola, SARS, etc. https://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2020/04/11/the-covid-pandemic-who-dunnit/ https://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2020/04/11/the-covid-pand... "To be fair, what’s on display here is a broader institutional malady. The US version of the WHO, the CDC, took a similar stance with another controversial topic—quarantines for health care workers returning from treating patients with Ebola. Four states—New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Illinois—instituted policies to quarantine anyone who had contact with someone infected with the Ebola virus while in west Africa, including medical personnel who cared for patients. No less than the Obama administration, backed by the CDC, attempted to squash these policies, arguing that this would serve as a disincentive for US health workers to travel to Africa to combat the disease at a time this help was sorely needed."

by sherr 7y ago

netsharc 7y ago

I agree with the head bashing, sadly that probably won't happen. The incompetent will slap each others' backs saying "heckuva job!" and go home to their gold toilets..

specialist 7y ago

"There have been debates for many years about streamlining the chain of command and responsibility in the USA..." My takeaway from the 9/11 debacle is we learned that the Clinton Admin had a "shaking the tree" process. In response WTC bombing, USS Cole, embassy attacks, etc. There are always organizational problems. Reasons data isn't shared. Legal, turf, bureaucratic, inability to correlate with others, whatever. Their workaround was to have a daily standup where all the agency heads shared info. Bush Admin (eg Condi Rice) discontinued such nonsense, choosing to focus on Russia (ending bans on nuke testing, chemical weapons, missile defense). Trump Admin didn't choose to discontinue Obama Admin's preparedness so much as outright rejected anything and everything Obama related, and pandemic stuff was swept away with the rest.

shas3 7y ago

The incompetence of CDC and FDA is staggering. It is not hard to imagine an alternative reality where the CDC-FDA testing fiasco did not occur, there was some test-and-trace early in the epidemic, and the cost and extent of the shut-downs were lesser and far fewer deaths occurred. It is a bit dismaying to say this: but CDC and FDA have a lot of blood on their hands.

rabidrat 7y ago
Who installed the CDC leadership and gutted their budget? It's easy to foist the blame on some faceless TLA govt org without digging just one level deeper to figure out how the gross incompetence was able to manifest.
- shas3 7y ago
  You'd be right, if CDC's Covid-19 response isn't a repeat of their initial incompetence during Ebola, SARS, etc. https://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2020/04/11/the-covid-pandemic-who-dunnit/ https://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2020/04/11/the-covid-pand... "To be fair, what’s on display here is a broader institutional malady. The US version of the WHO, the CDC, took a similar stance with another controversial topic—quarantines for health care workers returning from treating patients with Ebola. Four states—New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Illinois—instituted policies to quarantine anyone who had contact with someone infected with the Ebola virus while in west Africa, including medical personnel who cared for patients. No less than the Obama administration, backed by the CDC, attempted to squash these policies, arguing that this would serve as a disincentive for US health workers to travel to Africa to combat the disease at a time this help was sorely needed."