6 ms·

Reviving the US CDC

21 points by KKKKkkkk1 6y ago

m0zg 6y ago
> Deborah Birx, the head of the US COVID-19 Task Force and a former director of the CDC's Global HIV/AIDS Division, cast doubt on the CDC's COVID-19 mortality and case data by reportedly saying: “There is nothing from the CDC that I can trust”. This is an unhelpful statement, Why is pointing out abject incompetence an "unhelpful statement"? First step to solving any problem is acknowledging you have a problem. Go to the CDC website yourself and try to understand the total mess they are publishing, full four months after the epidemic started in earnest. They should be the "gold standard" I agree. But they are not.
- mcculley 6y ago
  This is not an accident. It’s the system working as designed. Steve Bannon famously described his agenda as the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” It’s pointless to argue about the chicken or the egg of how the CDC became crippled. The administration does not want it to succeed.
  - m0zg 6y ago
    Does the _CDC itself_ want to succeed? People _without a budget_ have done a much better job collecting and publishing data on github. Why is this so insurmountable for the CDC? I'd ideally have a single source of information. I'd prefer that source to be the CDC. But they somehow, 4 months in (!), choose to publish a pile of steaming excrement instead of clean, curated, well explained data.
    - SrslyJosh 6y ago
      I haven't looked at any of their data. I do recall seeing criticism, and I'm not gonna defend any agency headed by someone that Trump picked. My point is, I don't think Birx's comment was meant to be helpful or even constructively critical.
    - mcculley 6y ago
      I'm not defending the CDC. I am astounded at how poorly cities and counties record and report their own data and depend on the CDC. I want to see more decentralized recording and reporting. I have no idea how political things are at the CDC. Many there claim that they have had their budgets cut below workable levels. That's entirely consistent with the stated purpose of the current administration. We should get used to not having anything useful at the federal level.
      - SrslyJosh 6y ago
        > We should get used to not having anything useful at the federal level. Snow Crash, here we come.
- SrslyJosh 6y ago
  Birx is Trump's creature. She's been sucking up to and covering for him from day one. She even tried to hand-wave away his bleach and sunshine injection idiocy. There's no reason to trust her assessment of the CDC. She wasn't criticizing the quality of their work--she was trying to cast doubt on the number of Americans who have died, because Trump doesn't want anyone to know how many Americans have died on his watch.
  - solidasparagus 6y ago
    You are completely wrong. She's an excellent public health official. Her work in HIV/AIDS is highly respected. She has pushed a modern data-driven approach to a field where that is not common enough. At the heart of being a good high-level public health official is good political skill, something Birx excels at. Her ability to maintain her leadership role under Trump is impressive and important. You can't improve public health without support and money.
    - SrslyJosh 6y ago
      You can't improve public health when the person in the Oval Office wants to cover up a pandemic, either. Her comment, FTR: > “When he gets new information, he likes to talk that through out loud and really have that dialogue — and so that’s what dialogue he was having. I think he just saw the information at the time immediately before the press conference and he was still digesting that information" That's a very political way of saying he's a dangerous ignoramus.
      - solidasparagus 6y ago
        What would you suggest? Call him out? Somehow I doubt that's going to change him - but it will lead to her being replaced. And the replacement being replaced. And so on until Trump finds a sycophant who cares as little about public health as Trump does.
        SrslyJosh 6y ago
        What does it matter how much she cares about public health if she can't convince Trump to allow a proper response to the pandemic? Better to be fired and tell us everything that's been going on in the WH than to stay and keep enabling Trump.
nn3 6y ago
After all the bungling they did on Corona they should rather be happy if they survive as a organization. You had one job ... and everything. Clearly some major reforms are needed.

21 points by KKKKkkkk1 6y ago

m0zg 6y ago

> Deborah Birx, the head of the US COVID-19 Task Force and a former director of the CDC's Global HIV/AIDS Division, cast doubt on the CDC's COVID-19 mortality and case data by reportedly saying: “There is nothing from the CDC that I can trust”. This is an unhelpful statement, Why is pointing out abject incompetence an "unhelpful statement"? First step to solving any problem is acknowledging you have a problem. Go to the CDC website yourself and try to understand the total mess they are publishing, full four months after the epidemic started in earnest. They should be the "gold standard" I agree. But they are not.

mcculley 6y ago
This is not an accident. It’s the system working as designed. Steve Bannon famously described his agenda as the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” It’s pointless to argue about the chicken or the egg of how the CDC became crippled. The administration does not want it to succeed.
- m0zg 6y ago
  Does the _CDC itself_ want to succeed? People _without a budget_ have done a much better job collecting and publishing data on github. Why is this so insurmountable for the CDC? I'd ideally have a single source of information. I'd prefer that source to be the CDC. But they somehow, 4 months in (!), choose to publish a pile of steaming excrement instead of clean, curated, well explained data.
  - SrslyJosh 6y ago
    I haven't looked at any of their data. I do recall seeing criticism, and I'm not gonna defend any agency headed by someone that Trump picked. My point is, I don't think Birx's comment was meant to be helpful or even constructively critical.
  - mcculley 6y ago
    I'm not defending the CDC. I am astounded at how poorly cities and counties record and report their own data and depend on the CDC. I want to see more decentralized recording and reporting. I have no idea how political things are at the CDC. Many there claim that they have had their budgets cut below workable levels. That's entirely consistent with the stated purpose of the current administration. We should get used to not having anything useful at the federal level.
    - SrslyJosh 6y ago
      > We should get used to not having anything useful at the federal level. Snow Crash, here we come.
SrslyJosh 6y ago
Birx is Trump's creature. She's been sucking up to and covering for him from day one. She even tried to hand-wave away his bleach and sunshine injection idiocy. There's no reason to trust her assessment of the CDC. She wasn't criticizing the quality of their work--she was trying to cast doubt on the number of Americans who have died, because Trump doesn't want anyone to know how many Americans have died on his watch.
- solidasparagus 6y ago
  You are completely wrong. She's an excellent public health official. Her work in HIV/AIDS is highly respected. She has pushed a modern data-driven approach to a field where that is not common enough. At the heart of being a good high-level public health official is good political skill, something Birx excels at. Her ability to maintain her leadership role under Trump is impressive and important. You can't improve public health without support and money.
  - SrslyJosh 6y ago
    You can't improve public health when the person in the Oval Office wants to cover up a pandemic, either. Her comment, FTR: > “When he gets new information, he likes to talk that through out loud and really have that dialogue — and so that’s what dialogue he was having. I think he just saw the information at the time immediately before the press conference and he was still digesting that information" That's a very political way of saying he's a dangerous ignoramus.
    - solidasparagus 6y ago
      What would you suggest? Call him out? Somehow I doubt that's going to change him - but it will lead to her being replaced. And the replacement being replaced. And so on until Trump finds a sycophant who cares as little about public health as Trump does.
      - SrslyJosh 6y ago
        What does it matter how much she cares about public health if she can't convince Trump to allow a proper response to the pandemic? Better to be fired and tell us everything that's been going on in the WH than to stay and keep enabling Trump.

nn3 6y ago

After all the bungling they did on Corona they should rather be happy if they survive as a organization. You had one job ... and everything. Clearly some major reforms are needed.