3 ms·

The number one thing that could have been done was the easiest, government sponsored ramp up of PPE at the first signs of an epidemic. It took nearly half a ye

The number one thing that could have been done was the easiest, government sponsored ramp up of PPE at the first signs of an epidemic. It took nearly half a year for the Federal government to get their head in the game, and even then they've been flubbing it. I think the war analogy is useful, in that the Federal government should be able to have access to higher authority to execute on strategies quickly. I mean, we use the "War on ____" analogy enough, this pandemic is certainly more fitting than most of those issues.

neaden 6y ago
"I think the war analogy is useful, in that the Federal government should be able to have access to higher authority to execute on strategies quickly." Serious question, why? We come up with checks and balances for a reason. We have existing laws on how to handle pandemics, and states have existing laws for isolation and quarantine. We have the CDC, the Public Health Service, the NIH all as existing agencies with duties and plans that were supposed to be used for this. And those plans were ignored. We had months to prepare before the first cases appeared in the US. Our current federal leaders have proposed multiple strategies that would harm people without helping, such as promoting unproven therapies. What part of any of the federal response to this makes you think they should have had more authority?
- dariusj18 6y ago
  Just because this administration has done such a poor job of it doesn't mean a competent one wouldn't have been able to use the authority given during a crisis to do something effective. I also don't think there is any new law that would need to be enacted to grant additional authority to the executive branch. I agree, they had all the tools in the toolbox before and after the pandemic hit us. I didn't mean to seem to advocate that the executive needed more authority than they already posses, just that the authority they already posses is higher than we would normally be comfortable with without a crisis. I mostly meant that the war analogy is useful from a public perspective, because there are a lot of people who don't think in shades of grey, it's either war or peace, and to get them to do or accept what needs to be done, they need to be motivated.

neaden 6y ago

"I think the war analogy is useful, in that the Federal government should be able to have access to higher authority to execute on strategies quickly." Serious question, why? We come up with checks and balances for a reason. We have existing laws on how to handle pandemics, and states have existing laws for isolation and quarantine. We have the CDC, the Public Health Service, the NIH all as existing agencies with duties and plans that were supposed to be used for this. And those plans were ignored. We had months to prepare before the first cases appeared in the US. Our current federal leaders have proposed multiple strategies that would harm people without helping, such as promoting unproven therapies. What part of any of the federal response to this makes you think they should have had more authority?

dariusj18 6y ago
Just because this administration has done such a poor job of it doesn't mean a competent one wouldn't have been able to use the authority given during a crisis to do something effective. I also don't think there is any new law that would need to be enacted to grant additional authority to the executive branch. I agree, they had all the tools in the toolbox before and after the pandemic hit us. I didn't mean to seem to advocate that the executive needed more authority than they already posses, just that the authority they already posses is higher than we would normally be comfortable with without a crisis. I mostly meant that the war analogy is useful from a public perspective, because there are a lot of people who don't think in shades of grey, it's either war or peace, and to get them to do or accept what needs to be done, they need to be motivated.